Fates of Worlds
by Snow Leopard Pasha
Summary: Path 2 Sequel to Catalyst Array. Read that first. After Eden returns to Shinra, the remaining problems begin emerging and the world's fate becomes uncertain. Salvation and destruction cross and the result is unexpected! (Spoiler warning for Salvation's Hands!)
1. List of Current Turks (V3)

**List of Current Turks in Fates of Worlds**

These are the current Turks on December 9th of the year 0000 (when Catalyst Array ends and Fates of Worlds starts), by code name, primary weapon, age, Rank, general hiring date, hometown, and birth name. This version of the list should be the same as the V2 one I did for Catalyst Array, just cleaned up (for example, Veld is no longer listed, as he's no longer officially a Turk) and showing only the Rank under the new system, so the additional data from the Catalyst Array lists (V1 and V2) won't be in this one.

 **If you haven't read Catalyst Array, do so before you read Fates of Worlds or this story won't make any sense!**

Later in the story, I'll do an updated list with the final roster for the Turks in Fates of Worlds, if anyone wants me to do so.

The most important part of this list is really just the first two (bold) items, as the capitalized primary weapons indicate their default 'name' in Before Crisis for those who aren't familiar with the BC Turks.

 _ **List Data Order:**_

 _ **Code Name, Primary Weapon**_ _, Age, Rank, Hiring Date, Hometown, Birth Name_

 **Rude, martial arts** , 30+, Grand Master, 1994, unknown (maybe Costa del Sol), Blade Rusk

 **Balto, Katana** , 22, Grand Master, 1996 February, Gongaga, Tomas Balfour

 **Tseng** (Director) **, gun** , 20, Legend, 1996 November, Wutai, Ren Kaoin

 **Kariya (Legend), bombs** , 40+, Grand Master, 1997 February, Junon, Sidney Dalton

 **Reno** (Second in Command) **, EMR** , 18, Grand Master, 1998 April, unknown (probably Midgar Slums), Noah Reid

 **Maur, Martial Arts (Male)** , 25, Platinum, 1998 September, Costa del Sol, Urban Rehema

 **Judet, Martial Arts (Female)** , 24, Grand Master, 1998 October, Icicle Inn, Harriet Judson

 **Cissnei, Shuriken** , 15, Platinum, 1999 March 23, unknown/Midgar orphanage, Neirine Cissero

 **Illis, Knife** , 19, Leader, 0000 January 22, Corel, Lisa Ilya

 **Emma, Gun** , 17, Leader, 0000 March 21, Midgar Slums, Maria Emerio

 **Ruluf, Two Guns** , 21, Gold, 0000 June 10, Midgar Slums (Sector 6), Russel Thorluf

 **Freyra, Shotgun** , 21, Gold, 0000 June 17, Mideel, Kara Freyne

 **Alvis, Rod** , 18, Expert, 0000 July 4, Midgar Slums, Dennis Alvar

 **Quis, Nunchaku** , 19, Ace, 0000 August 9, Bone Village, Travis Quaten

 **Eden, variety/magic** , 16, Ace, 0000 September 10/back-dated to August 29, Amestris, Edward Elric

 **Vant, gun** , 40+, Ace, 0000 September 11, unknown/Nibelheim (for lack of another place), Vincent Valentine

End List

Is there anything else you want to see on this list? If so, please let me know so I can add it!


	2. 01-Return to Shinra

**A/N:** Like always, I don't own either FFVII or FMA:B/manga. I'm only saying this once!

This is the path where Eden remains as the only Amestrian on Gaia. I'm just going to say this: based on data provided by the FFVII and FFX designers, by this point in Gaia's timeline, a minimum of 3000 years has passed on Spira since FFX, likely longer because space travel takes time. I'm going to give a more definite reference to the actual number of years later, though it will still be ball-parked a bit.

 **If you didn't read Catalyst Array first, you won't understand most of this story, so please go back and read it! I won't be re-introducing or re-describing people if they've been given new names or switched to a different canon name for main use.**

 **The first 33 chapters of Fates of Worlds are sort of like spoilers for Salvation's Hands and vice versa, so just be aware of that. However, if your goal is the new third path of this monster crossover,** **Fates of Worlds—Dimensions, the fastest way to it is by reading the first 33 chapters of FoW, then skipping to FoWD when I start posting it in the new year (likely timeline is sometime in February). If you're planning to read all 3 paths, just keep in mind that chapter 33 of FoW is still the separation point between FoW and FoWD.  
**

 **A quick reminder (because it was only briefly mentioned after the raid on Deepground in Catalyst Array):**

Zack (and nearly every other Second Class) has been promoted to SOLDIER First Class, so wears a black uniform now, but because of the reason for promotion, he's still being 'mentored' by Angeal. Nearly every Third has also been promoted to Second Class, so they wear purple. Only ten Thirds are still ranked as such and wear pale blue—they're waiting for the new batch of Cadets to join them so the number of Thirds will start going up again.

The early chapters in Fates of Worlds are an indicator of a few things to come, but Eden's mental state will be explained through them (especially by Balto in chapter 2)—and once these chapters are dealt with and Ed gets back to normal, there are no plans to have him go through another serious breakdown (his personality wouldn't let him do this more than once), even if he ends up with a few hiccups along the way.

Return to Shinra

When the Highwind landed on the landing platform near the top of the Shinra building in Midgar, there were some people already waiting for them there, including Reeve, Rufus, Reno, and Illis. Reno was clearly there as Rufus' guard while both Eden and Sephiroth were away, but it would give Eden the chance to introduce Yufi to both of her already-noted potential guards amongst the Turks. In addition, Genesis had shown up there and was standing near Illis as the two conversed during the docking procedures. Some of the ones waiting nearby were clearly mechanics for Highwind maintenance, and some were other SOLDIERs greeting their comrades back and giving them reports and instructions. That was the first time Ed had seen so many Shinra employees wearing the black uniform Sora, Angeal, and Zack wore, and most of them without any additions to their uniform the way Genesis and Sephiroth had.

Yufi still looked a little ill and miserable as Eden, Felicia, and she walked off the Highwind behind Sephiroth, Angeal, and Zack, but she was at least more alert and aware than she had been while the Highwind had been in the air. The nine-year-old girl was clinging to Eden's arm and using him to support her weight while she looked around carefully at her new surroundings. When the three SOLDIERs reached the bottom of the ramp, Genesis approached them to speak quietly to Sephiroth and Angeal for a few moments, causing both to nod and quickly head for the door into the building, Zack following his mentor as usual.

Genesis then faced the other three and said with a small, tired smile, "It'll be good to have you back, Eden. I hear you're making a name for yourself, Felicia."

Her brow rose and she replied, "You certainly get news fast, Commander. What brought you up here?"

"Actually, I really need Eden's help with the situation here, and I don't believe I have the time to wait," the red haired man sighed, then looked at the blond Turk. "Sorry. Tseng wanted you to rest today, but..."

"If you think it's urgent, it probably is," Eden nodded. "Anyway, I've been resting for a few days already and travel pretty much has no effect on me, so it's not a big deal on my end." His gaze went to where Reeve, Rufus, Reno, and Illis were waiting, then he commented, "We should probably move over there for the remainder of the introductions so the rest of the guys can disembark, though."

"That's probably a good idea," Felicia agreed with a glance behind her at the other Shinra troops waiting to step off the Highwind.

Genesis extended a hand towards the waiting four, then fell in with Felicia as she took the lead in heading over to them. Eden followed more slowly with Yufi, who was finally starting to recover her own balance once she was back on something solid. It didn't take the four of them long to join the four who were waiting for them, but there was a momentary pause as the two groups met.

"Well," the red haired SOLDIER First said as he looked around at the group. "To be safe, we'd best start with introductions." His gaze went to Felicia and Yufi as he went on, "I'm Commander Genesis Rhapsodos, and these people are Rufus Shinra, President Shinra's son, Rufus' current guard, Reno of the Turks, Executive Reeve Tuesti from Urban Development, and Illis of the Turks, who has been assigned to act as a guard for the Princess." He then nodded at Eden and gave a wry grin as he added, "You don't have to introduce yourself, Eden, since we all know you personally."

"Ha, ha," the blond snorted as several of the others chuckled. "Anyway, this is Felicia Pereld, the leader of Gaia's Refuge—I'm sure you all know what that is or you wouldn't be meeting with her." His gaze was on Reeve in amusement as he said that, and he received an amused smile and nod in reply, so looked down at Yufi. "And this young lady is Princess Yufi Kisaragi, Emperor Godo's daughter," Eden said as he looked at the black haired woman curiously and with some concern.

She gave a smile and nod as she agreed, "I thought so." Illis then looked down at the girl to address her directly, "It's nice to meet you, Princess."

Yufi made a small face, then pouted as she looked up at Eden. "I really can't just have you as my guard?"

Felicia sighed, Eden held a hand to his head like it hurt, Genesis and Reeve chuckled, Rufus snorted in amusement, and Reno laughed outright at the words, even as Illis blinked several times, then raised a questioning brow at the blond Turk.

Before she or her fellow Turk could say anything, Rufus stepped up to the girl and said, "Eden certainly is good at handling us 'royal children', isn't he?" Her gaze moved to him in surprise, so he went on, "It's not like you won't see him again, but he has prior responsibilities to take up again, and I'm one of them. He's got less free time now that he's back home than he did while he was visiting you, and frankly, even if you had precedence in Wutai, you _don't_ have it here. Illis can more than keep up with you, trust me. Tseng doesn't assign anyone who can't do a job."

The girl glared and opened her mouth, only for Eden to cover it with his hand. "True, true, true, true, true, and true. I _told_ you that before you came here, Yufi. As far as that goes, I can't even show you around because I have work to do with Genesis, so you'll have to go with Illis and see for yourself how things go." He then looked at the black haired woman and said, "It's okay to be completely frank and harsh with her—necessary, actually. That was likely one of Tseng's reasons for making you Yufi's main guard—but have you recovered enough to _do_ so?"

With a nod, the woman answered, "The doctors are satisfied with my recovery rate, and as long as I don't go getting captured and tortured again in the next few months, I'm fully recovered. And Eden, haven't you learned yet that you aren't responsible for saving every person from every little thing that could be wrong?"

"She has a point, Eden," Reeve admitted as he struggled not to smile and the others chuckled faintly.

"Yes, he still can't leave well enough alone," Rufus replied in some amusement. He then gave his head a small shake and said, "Regardless, we should be retiring to your office, Reeve. This is a working meeting, after all."

"Of course," the older man agreed as he looked at Felicia. "This way, please." He and Rufus led the way inside with Felicia and Reno following.

At that point, Eden faced Yufi and told her, "Shinra is very different from Wutai, and you won't see those differences here or with me. You need to go with Illis and get used to having her around, as well as learning about this new society you've decided to try living in. You also need to get signed in to the Academy so you can take lessons and meet other kids, like a girl your age named Shelke. Okay?"

The girl frowned a bit in puzzlement and asked, "Who's Shelke? You've never talked about her before."

Giving his head a shake, the younger Turk said, "It's up to Shelke to tell you her story if she wants to, but Princess—you had best rethink your definition of what constitutes a hard life before you decide to badmouth her, because her life has been _much_ worse than yours. Frankly, the fact that she's still sane shows a mental and emotional strength you have yet to show me. There's a lot you need to learn, things you can't learn by staying attached at the hip to me."

Slowly, Yufi sighed and nodded, then looked at Illis in surprise as the woman held out a hand and said, "Let's go look around, then."

"Why are you being nice? I pretty much ignored you before!" the Wutain girl said, obviously confused.

Illis cocked her head to the side and said, "I once did the same thing to Tseng, when I got caught stealing. He gave me a chance anyway. I consider it fair turnabout to give you that same chance. It's up to you whether you'll take it or not."

After a pause, the girl lifted her hand slowly up to the one Illis held out to her, gently taking it like she was afraid it would be withdrawn. When it wasn't, her grip tightened on the woman's hand and the Lady Turk answered it with a firm grip as well, then led the nine-year-old inside. Once the door had shut and several more of the stream of SOLDIERs and Infantrymen who had been leaving the roof had left, Eden heaved a relieved sigh.

"Tough job?" Genesis asked sympathetically.

"'Tough' doesn't cover it with her. That girl is a walking mass of contradictions even worse than Rufus'—I actually had to drag her over my knee and spank her to make her realize rules are there for a _reason_. And she's still only half-learned the lesson. At least Rufus already knew that and wasn't really justifying his actions by making them seem 'right', he was just—I guess he was getting revenge, and wasn't hiding that fact."

"Ouch. I'm going to have to make it worse, though..."

"How do you mean?"

"Let's go inside and I'll show you." At Genesis' deep sigh, Eden gave the older, red haired man a worried look, then quietly followed him inside. They went to Genesis' office, a place Eden had never actually seen before, where several arrays were laid out on the office table and others were pinned to the walls.

The Turk had no chance to look at the rest of the office as the arrays caught his attention and he asked in something like horror, "Are these all from your case here in Midgar?"

"They are, but I don't have the knowledge of the details of what they say," Genesis agreed. "I'm—guessing the one drawing them out is asking for help and is reaching the point of no return, but I can't interpret enough to track the person's likely next location, their residence, or their actual goal in reaching said 'point of no return'. I need you to finish the interpretation for me." The red haired man then moved a few sheets of arrays aside, showing a map of the Midgar Plate. "This marks the locations of all of them."

Nodding, Eden moved over to study the map for several minutes, then looked around at the arrays again for another several minutes. "They're actually pretty much on our level, and if I'm reading them right, this is more like a suicide note than anything. Let's see..."

"Suicide? Why?" Genesis asked in alarm.

"Whoever it is can't deal with the knowledge of the arrays. Depending on how they came by it—that could actually drive a person insane, especially if it was anything like what happens when I touch Materia bare-handed."

"Could that really happen to someone besides you?"

"It apparently happened to a pair of Wutains, and to another person or persons here at about the same time. Well, we've been interfering greatly in whatever path would have originally happened, so who knows what the results of doing that would be?"

"Are you saying _we're_ the reason these arrays are randomly popping up all over the place?" Genesis asked with a puzzled frown.

"Mmm...Do you know anything about how transmission of knowledge happens?" the blond Turk asked as he sat down in one of the chairs and looked up at the older man with his arms crossed over his chest.

"By learning from books, from teachers, in various sorts of lessons from the time we're very young. The 'teachers' may be our parents or guardians, a mentor, a literal teacher, or even from what we see on the news," the SOLDIER replied evenly.

"True, but there's more to it than that," Eden answered. "You're not wrong, you're just missing a method of transmission. This was an experiment first done on primates, then done later on humans, and it held true in both cases, so this is directly linked to a certain degree of sentience, or a certain _format_ of sentience. (1) In the example of the primates, there were some islands where the monkeys liked a food, but didn't know how to get to it, so humans taught one of the young ones on one island how to do so. As the new generation of those primates took over on _all_ of the islands, _every one_ of them started doing the same things the one had been taught to do. While that made sense for the ones on the island where the young one had been taught the method—because that young one could 'teach' it to the others around it—there is absolutely _no_ physical explanation or reason for how all the _rest_ learned it."

At that point, Ed rose and pulled out a book on one of Genesis' shelves, a book of various three-dimensional images where the pattern hid other images within it and there was a particular method which allowed people to 'see' the hidden image. Holding it up beside his head for a moment, he went on, "When they did it with humans, they took an image and asked a select group of people how many faces they saw in the image. The number was very low, and those people were told not to talk about the activity or results until the test was complete—all of those people were monitored during the rest of this, and didn't share any data.

"The scientists went to another continent to choose another select group of individuals, who they showed the same image to and showed them where every face was in the image and how to find it. They were given the same instructions as the first test group, and were also tracked to make sure they didn't share the results, and those people didn't do so. When the scientists returned to the same city they'd done the first test in, they chose a completely different group of people and had them look at the same image—and that time, those people found nearly every face, if not all of them, very easily. The original group was brought back in and asked to do it again, and _they_ found nearly every face easily."

"How?" Genesis asked in amazement, and Eden dropped the book onto the table on the map.

"Because we have another method of information transmission—a 'universal consciousness' which links us all together," the Turk replied quietly. "The Lifestream, the Goddess, Minerva—she's part of that cycle, and is most likely the one collecting all the data we unwittingly transmit. Not everyone gains knowledge of the data put into the shared consciousness we have, but the more people who know something or the more strongly a person focuses on something, the more likely it is to imprint into the minds of others. That's why...society _has_ to change, and the more people we take along for the ride, the more people we _can_ save, because the more people are focused on another way, the more people will see and follow it."

At the words, Genesis rubbed the back of his head and said, "So you're saying the two of us focusing so strongly on the arrays and alchemy is causing others to start gaining that knowledge when they otherwise wouldn't have?"

"Yes, though the results obviously vary by who gains it and how," Eden answered. "I wouldn't be surprised if the person here in Midgar got it much more strongly because of the time and effort towards it the both of us have put in here. Anyone gaining it that way is probably more susceptible to either 'transmission' or to 'the arrays' than normal to have gotten it this way. And Genesis, if I wasn't a genius and my will so strong, I'd have gone insane from the forced comprehension of the Materia. Someone else who has no damned clue what it is, what it means, how to use it, where it comes from, and is completely unprepared for that influx—what do you think would happen to them?"

Turning to face the wall he had covered in arrays, the red haired man eyed them with a new perspective. "So this person is reaching the limit of their sanity, and if I don't find them soon to find out the actual terms and teach them to work with it, there's a good chance they'll end their own life to make it stop. That would, in turn, cause more suffering to be dumped in the pool of stagnant Mako...so I think I have to talk with both Tseng and Lazard about tracking down others in other towns..."

"First, we have to find _this_ one," the blond replied dryly.

"Eden, _I_ have to find him," Genesis told the younger man as he turned to face him with a small frown. "I just need you to point me in the right direction. I've already kept you from the rest Tseng wanted you to take by dragging you here, so you don't need to participate any further."

"But—" Ed began.

"Unless, of course, you think I'm not capable of resolving this myself?" Genesis cut him off with narrowed eyes. "If that's the case, you've got a serious problem to deal with, and that's actually an issue of trust in others. If you don't trust others, you don't truly trust yourself, either."

The blond yanked back like he'd been burned, and Genesis was standing at least four feet from him! He'd never been accused of something like that before just because he wanted to help—but it reminded him again of his discussions with Deneh, Balto, and Godo. When he just came along and fixed things others were capable of fixing themselves, was he actually _helping_ them or just making himself feel better?

Tears blurred his vision and he lowered his head so his bangs would cover his face and he'd be able to close his eyes to try to get control of the sudden surge of pain he felt. It wasn't the first time he'd wondered if his crusade to save the world was a self-given purpose or one he'd been led to by someone like Truth or Minerva, but he was starting to feel like he'd reached a breaking point. Where was the limit? When was he supposed to help and when wasn't he? Was he pushing people away from him by trying to help?

He didn't realize he'd moved until he felt a hand grip his right elbow firmly. Through his still-blurry vision, he was able to see that he was standing at the office door, his left hand on the knob as he was about to turn it. When had he gotten there? And why had Genesis stopped him from leaving?

"I opened a wound, didn't I?" the man asked from behind him. The voice was open and frank, but there was no sympathy or even kindness in it. At least there also wasn't any actual negative feeling in it, but for some reason, it hurt even more without any real inflection. "But the one thing I need your help with is the one thing you haven't managed to answer yet, and someone's life _depends_ on that. Once I know where to look or how to track the person, you can go and get the rest you now need."

Drawing in a shaky breath, the Turk forced himself to think back to the map, and after a minute, he said softly, "Sector 6 around the middle of the circle of eight points near the central pillar. I can't give you anything more specific with what's here."

"Thank you," Genesis answered, and the hand lifted off the blond's elbow. For a moment, Eden completely lost track of what he was supposed to be doing, and it was only the red haired man saying, "Turn the knob and open the door, Eden," which reminded him he was supposed to be leaving. At first, his hand didn't want to move, but by the time he got it to do so, he wanted to get away from there. At the same time, he had no idea what he should do or not from there, but something made him hesitate to go someplace where someone like Yufi would see him right then.

For some time, he just stood blankly in some hallway or another—he didn't even know where he was by then. He vaguely knew his PHS started ringing at one point, but couldn't muster the strength it would take to pull it out and answer it. How long after that it took him to realize he was in what he assumed was his room, he had no idea, just that it was probably a while. The next time he became aware, he was laying on his bed and his pillow was soaked with tears, but he didn't actually remember crying. It felt like when he'd lost Al all over again, only this time, somehow his feelings were unlocked and the tears he'd never been able to cry were coming out.

He also had no desire to get up, and didn't feel hunger—or anything else. Pain and numbness were the extent of what he felt, and he honestly had no idea why. After what he'd done to his brother, basically killing him then sticking him in an isolation tank, for awhile he'd gone completely blank, until Mustang had turned up and challenged him to fix the damage he'd done. How could he fix crossing a line he didn't even know he'd crossed, a line he didn't know how to judge? How many people felt like Genesis and just hadn't told him?

How much had he lost without even realizing it?

Once, he tried to get up for something or other, maybe to get some fresh air on the balcony, but his body just stayed slack. He'd barely been able to make it to the bathroom the few times he'd been able to remember needing to go, but it was different when he tried to get up that time. It was as though his mind had decided some actions...most actions, actually...had become unnecessary, so there was no point in transmitting the data to his limbs to do them.

What had he done, both to everyone around him and to himself?

Did it actually matter?

More than anything, why had Genesis' response—or lack thereof—hurt so much?

No, he knew why it had. The words had opened a wound he hadn't even guessed he had, and yet...it was true. He trusted the rules of alchemy...but he didn't trust himself, or anyone else—not in his heart.

Better to just not think, to not bother with anything...

 **A/N:**

I've known plenty of people who did or thought things which made no sense, and the problem is almost always something stemming from an event (or more than one) in their past which they haven't dealt with, or it's a reaction to some recent upheaval they aren't currently dealing well with, or both. If what Ed's thinking makes no sense to you just by what I've shown is going on in his head right now, this will all get addressed in coming chapters.

And yes, when Edward Elric gets faced with something that hits too close to home, he _does_ have a tendency to shut down for awhile (when he put Al in the suit of armor, when he found Nina as a chimera, and when he found out the main 'ingredient' in the Philosopher's Stone is humans, cited as proof). He's never been completely alone in any such situation, though, which is the major difference here (Al, Winry, and Pinako in the first, Al in both others). Of course, this also isn't because no one would want to be with him, it's because he's 'an adult' and no one is quite aware RIGHT AWAY that something is wrong.

(1) These are real tests done in the past, though I don't remember where the primate one took place. I think humans taught the primates how to clean sand off some sort of peeled fruit or vegetable they liked to eat. The human one took place in Britain and Australia.


	3. 02-Origins

**A/N:** I have two justifications for Ed's rather open admission in this chapter. The first is that he trusts the two he's talking to, but the more important one is that he _just doesn't care_ at the time he's saying it. His mind isn't in a good place yet, so he wouldn't actually care very much if they even tried to kill him. Thankfully, no one plans to do that.

Origins

A hand on his shoulder made him slowly open his eyes—and somehow, he was surprised to see Rude there. The man eyed him for a few moments, then sighed and asked, "What happened?"

The question amused him somehow, but all he could manage was a faint smile as he shut his eyes again. "Sorry...just...I figured I'd done enough damage that everyone would be glad to see me go...all because I don't even know when to stop 'helping'..."

For some time, all he heard was silence, so thought maybe the man had left—a thought which caused pain to shoot through him again—but the pain was cut off by shock as he was abruptly lifted, carried, stripped, and put down on something cold. As the sound of running water came to him and he felt water on his feet—well, his one flesh-and-blood foot—and lower back, he opened his eyes and slowly looked around. Rude had taken his shades off and was watching him closely as he lay in what was most likely the tub in his room. Warm water was filling the tub around him, but somehow, he started trembling from cold, a cold the warmth of the water wasn't reaching...couldn't reach.

Rude's hand rested on his head as he said, "Stay here." After a pause, the hand lifted and the darker man rose to leave the room.

Only a few moments later, Balto came into the room and leaned against the counter across from the tub. "Rude told me what you said. Both of us know that's not actually your problem right now, because the only other time you've reacted even remotely like this was when Rude told you to let go of the past and move forward. So, let me be more specific—what, exactly, did Genesis say to you which caused you to have a breakdown like this?"

At first, Eden didn't know how to answer, because he hadn't actually been thinking about the other man's words for a long time. Or, what felt like a long time to him. By the time he had fully recalled the discussion he'd had with Genesis—and how it had ended—Rude had returned with a cup of something.

"Can you sit?" the bald Turk asked as he placed the cup on the edge of the tub.

Ed made an effort to at least try to sit up, but even though his body had gotten more mobile, he couldn't do that much on his own. Seeing that, the man helped him to a sitting position leaning against the back wall of the tub and placed the cup in his hands, letting the blond see something which looked like hot chocolate. Slowly, he sipped it—and realized right away it had been laced with something alcoholic to forcibly warm the inside of his body. There wasn't enough to make him drunk or even tipsy, but as he sipped more, it was actually working to warm him and make him more alert.

"So, what's your answer?" Balto asked as the younger Turk leaned his head back against the wall, eyes closing.

With a soft sigh, the teen said quietly, "He...asked me if I thought he couldn't do his job...Then said if that was the case, it meant I had issues with trusting others, and that in turn meant I didn't trust myself." He didn't see both men's eyes widen in alarm, or the worry which joined it when he gave a small chuckle and added, "And he's right. I don't trust myself...How can I trust others if I can't trust myself?"

"I always thought the one person you _did_ trust was yourself," Balto commented, controlling his voice so only curiosity and apprehension came out in it.

"As did I," Rude added.

Releasing another sigh, the teen replied quietly, "How could I ever trust myself when I was so stupid I killed my own brother?"

The words hung in the air for over a minute before Balto asked in shock and clear lack of comprehension, "You what?"

Dull, golden eyes opened half-way to stare at the ceiling as he said quietly, "A long time ago, the Cetra—the Ancients—practiced the same skill I use, called alchemy. By doing so, they connected to something called the Alchemist's Gate, which is operated by a being calling itself Truth. The Alchemist's Gate holds knowledge, but it does a lot of other things no one but Truth knows about, and...my world also had connected to the Alchemist's Gate. Apparently, the Gate can also act as a path between worlds which have accessed it—or maybe to worlds which haven't as well—but I'd place bets on Truth controlling that completely.

"...Anyway, what happened with my family, my brother...Even though they had two kids, our parents never got married. I was a year or so older than my brother. I was just about four when our father left, and when I was about seven, our mom died, leaving the two of us alone with only our neighbors to watch over us a bit. When I was eight, a woman who knew very powerful alchemy came to our town and saved it from a flood, and agreed to take us as her apprentices. We studied with her for a couple years until I was about ten, then returned home...to try to bring our mother back to life.

"The result...was catastrophic. One of the ways to access the Alchemist's Gate is to try to raise the dead, but that doesn't mean it'll work because of the Law of Equivalent Exchange...Basically, in order to obtain something, something of equal value must be lost. But what's equivalent to a soul, to a life? Making a soulless body is easy, and you can pretty much do it on a child's allowance, but we wanted _our mother_ back, not a—doll with her face. Al wanted to wait and check the equations again, but I pushed to do it anyway...The Gate took him and my leg and brought to life a twisted _something_ which only lived for a few minutes before breaking apart and dying.

"When I realized what I had done, I used a nearby suit of armor and opened the Gate again to get at least part of my brother back—his soul. In the process, I lost my right arm, but I got his soul back...in a body which couldn't eat or sleep or feel touch, taste, smell...I really wasn't thinking when I did that, because I basically stuck him in an isolation tank for five years. For awhile, I went numb, until a man from the Amestrian Military came by and challenged me to use the resources available to State Alchemists to try to fix what I'd done to my brother."

With a deep sigh, the blond teen closed his eyes again and gave his head a shake. "With an arm and a leg missing, there was no way I could do that, so I underwent the procedure to have prosthetic limbs called auto-mail—advanced cybernetics—put on at all of eleven years old, a procedure most adult men couldn't handle. What kept me going was the thought of how much Al was suffering in that suit of armor, so getting the limbs hooked directly into my nervous system, that pain...it was a small price to pay. They told me it would take three years to go through the rehab to get my arm and leg working properly, but I did it in six months and went to find Mustang, the guy who had come to my hometown.

"Needless to say, the State Alchemy exams are really tough. Thousands of people take them every year, and maybe only two at most will be chosen—but my skills were so impressive they took me when I was twelve. I spent the last four years traveling with my brother, trying to find a way to get his body back, to get my arm and leg back, but to do it, I had to become a 'dog of the military' and I knew there would come a time when things wouldn't go so well.

"Things went a lot worse than expected as the Military split into two factions, one led by a super-powered being known as a homunculus and calling itself 'Father', and the other led by a few top commanders who realized something was wrong in the ranks. In the battle against Father, we were...trying to bombard him with everything we had to chip away at his power, but he had a way to shut off our alchemy by forcing the energy it runs on—of life and death—out of the area. We were limited to physical attacks, and I was one of the strongest of those combatants...until Father destroyed my auto-mail arm and pinned my flesh one to a slab of cement.

"My brother and a girl we knew from another country set up a kind of distance-use alchemy which ran on a type of energy Father couldn't influence. The result exchanged Al's soul for my arm...that's how I got this arm back and lost my brother again. I—went a little crazy and took it out on Father, weakening him enough that it became possible for us to use alchemy again, so I used it to perform a transmutation on Father, using him as the materials to reach the Gate and get my brother back...

"But then I have a blank spot in my memory before I woke up outside Fort Condor. I don't even know if I was able to bring Al back, if this—being completely severed from my home and family—is what I sacrificed to return him to life...or if this is my punishment for trying again to revive the dead when they're meant to stay dead...I don't even know if I have a purpose here..."

He could feel tears running down his cheeks, and a long silence followed his explanation, a silence which caused him to feel more and more detached from the world the longer he had nothing to ground him. Finally, he forced out, "What I trust is the arrays, alchemy, Materia...Not myself, not others...Because what I did to my own brother...could so easily happen again. And that line I keep crossing, when to help others and when not to, even how to help them...Not only did I never really know where that line was because of other parts of how I grew up, but...I guess that's kind of like atonement or self-imposed punishment, and I really feel guilty, like I've failed, if I don't do it." The silent tears were still flowing, and there was still no response. He didn't think Rude and Balto had left, but he couldn't bring himself to open his eyes, either...because if they weren't there, he _would_ break.

Suddenly, a hand rested on his head in the familiar, comforting and grounding way Rude's always did.

"That's a lot to take in," Balto said quietly. "A lot of things fit now, but it's still a lot of data about a lot of things all being dropped on us at once. It's quite a learning curve to fit it into what we once thought of the world. With your permission, could we at least inform Tseng?"

Eden lifted his shoulders slightly in an almost-shrug, then softly answered, "He knows the part about my brother, just not...that I'm from another planet. Depending on how long I've been...laying in bed...he may actually _need_ to know it. Especially if I've missed any of the times I was supposed to report in."

"Do you think you have?" the black haired man asked curiously.

"No idea...I haven't really been aware of anything since before I left Genesis' office the day we got back from Wutai..."

"Of course. And it never occurred to you that we'd notice you weren't being seen _anywhere_ , not even for meals? We're aware you don't have food here, too, so we couldn't excuse it that way—and that's besides the fact that Genesis called Tseng."

For a moment, Eden's breath stopped as he asked in a strained tone, "Why?"

"He said something he thought would make you _think_ , not hurt you, but your reaction was so far outside your usual reactions that he got worried about you even before you left his office. Later that day, while he was making arrangements to find the person writing the arrays in the city, he called Tseng and told him what had happened so everyone would be able to keep an eye out for you. It's just as well Tseng insisted you rest when you returned from Wutai, though this was a rather unexpected turn for the 'rest' to take."

The blond released the breath he'd been holding, then said, "After the way Genesis was behaving, I didn't actually think anyone would care...that everyone else was just too polite to tell me I'd crossed the line and they didn't want my company anymore..."

He didn't see the older men trade looks before Rude asked, "The way Genesis was behaving?"

"There was no feeling in what he said before I left...I could have handled anger or—anything, really...better than the non-reaction he had...like he really just didn't care."

"You missed a lot," Rude told him quietly. "Maybe you couldn't tell anymore, but you never _looked_ at him after he told you it was time to limit your helping. He told Tseng that, too. You never saw or heard the worry and regret on his face, in his voice."

Balto blinked at Rude in surprise for the number of words he'd just said, then looked at the younger Turk in the tub and threw in, "If you behaved anything like you did when I started scrutinizing you in Corel, that all makes more sense, because you have a tendency to walk away without looking back or asking 'why'. Not all the time admittedly, but you do it enough to be worrying. Some of the things you tend to avoid make a lot more sense now, but others not so much. Then again, you've adapted oddly well to a completely different world, and I suppose this was also partly the strain catching up to you—if we'd known sooner, we could have been watching for this shoe to drop."

Slowly, Eden looked up at the two men and asked, "What?"

"It's a psychological issue," Balto explained frankly. "To use a simple example, say a child who had been abused is taken in by new guardians who aren't like their old ones. For awhile, they may be on their best behavior and seem to be adapting well to their new environment—but it doesn't last because it _can't_. The abuse and the basic trauma of the complete change in environment will emerge eventually and there will be an explosion, generally emotionally. The child may suddenly react to something as though still in the abusive home, only in the extreme because it's been so long since the last time they were abused, essentially like making up for lost time. Or, the child may go out of their way suddenly to misbehave, to test the limits or to push the new guardians' buttons. Testing like that isn't unusual, and how the guardians react has a lot to do with how well the child comes out of it. The whole process may even happen more than once before the child actually adapts to being a normal child.

"Now, that isn't to say Turks are anything like 'normal', because none of us are, but you're probably doing some of both options, given how you've now been told 'Turks are family'. And there's certainly enough trauma in your past and enough very recent environmental trauma for you to react to—or _need_ to react to, as the case may be. The fact that you rather associate Rude with a fatherly figure probably helped push the explosion. As traumatic as it can be, especially since Turks don't do anything half-way, this is actually a step in the right direction, because it means we _are_ getting through to you, and you're taking us as 'family'."

For a few surprised minutes, the blond just stared between the two men, who both met his gaze curiously. Rude's hand on his head reminded him again of how he actually _was_ associating the man with a fatherly figure, but it was more than that.

When he looked at Balto again, he said quietly, "That day in Corel, you said no matter how much you did or didn't agree with me, you couldn't let anything happen to me because I'm your _brother_. It was probably the trigger point for this, because I have a direct link to a brother, to being the older and protective sibling...I'm really not used to being the one protected. If you or Tseng or Veld had told me 'Turks are family' before that discussion, I couldn't have accepted it and would have balked because I wasn't ready to—have a new family. That was the turning point, when I was finally ready to accept a new family and a new life, one which didn't include Al. A father was the _easy_ part to accept, because I never really had one in the _first_ place."

The swordsman's head tipped to the side for a minute before he gave a nod and agreed, "You could be entirely correct based on what you told us about your past. The question is, do you plan to go back to your world?"

Eden had to look away as he thought about the question, but then he sighed and asked, "So, it would be fine with you if I tried to raise someone from the dead who had been dead for years, or if I slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people to gain the degree of power I'd need to open the Alchemist's Gate?"

Both blinked, then traded alarmed looks again before Rude asked, "What do you mean? You would never do either of those."

Sighing again, golden eyes met brown as the teen said quietly, "I've done both in the past. Remember, I got into this mess by trying to bring my mother and brother back from the dead. And Father...wasn't a single being, he was a single mind forcibly controlling multitudes of other souls—souls I sacrificed willingly when I transmuted Father with the intent to restore my brother. Why do you think I won't do it now?"

"Because you already would have," Rude answered simply.

"I already...?" Eden blinked.

"You have the knowledge, power, and resources to have done either or both," Balto filled in, crossing his arms. "If you intended to do either, you already would have."

One corner of the blond's lips turned up and he commented, "Then there's no way for me to open the Gate or try to go back. There aren't many ways to open it, and if I won't use those methods, how _can_ I go back?" Both men's eyes lit up in understanding. "I can't even ask Truth if I actually succeeded in bringing my brother back or if this is just a punishment."

"Do you think it's a punishment?" Balto asked. "You have a new family, you're favored by some higher force, and you've saved a lot of people."

"Is that really a 'punishment'?" Rude asked quietly when Balto stopped speaking.

Blinking, then blinking again, Eden slowly shook his head under Rude's hand, then said, "It's...sort of not and sort of is? I mean...I'm being given a lot of boons for a 'punishment', but that's probably Minerva's doing, and even if Truth could send me here, I doubt he can control how she handles my presence on her own world. For her, for you, and partly for me, it's not a punishment, but for Truth, who severed me from everything I held dear and fought so hard for—it _is_ a punishment, even if Minerva hasn't let it serve as one for her purposes."

"Okay, that's true in its own right," Balto agreed, then pointed at the younger Turk while his arms were still crossed. "But then that makes it a matter of perspective."

"...Perspective..." the teen repeated slowly as he thought back to a man he'd met once who had never been able to so much as gain a normal prosthetic limb—but who had been allowed to leave the military to be with his family because of it. (1) "It's...only as much of a punishment as I let it be?" he asked the black haired Turk, who nodded.

His gaze moved down to his bare knees for a few more minutes as he seriously thought about the idea, and found himself wondering how widely-applied the Law of Equivalent Exchange actually _was_. It definitely applied to alchemy, and he'd thought for most of his life that it applied to everything, but too many things in the world didn't actually abide by it.

Those born into wealth didn't do anything to deserve it, hadn't worked for it themselves, yet gained it simply by having been born while the person born into a common home could spend their entire life working hard while never gaining even a fraction of the wealth of the one born to it. And that was just one blatant example. How many people had given everything to become State Alchemists, but failed year after year no matter how hard they worked?

If Equivalent Exchange held true, those who worked hard should have huge amounts of wealth and those who studied so hard for the State Alchemist exams should have all been State Alchemists. Alchemically, the rule had to hold true because without the Philosopher's Stone, tangible materials were required in order to create the result. In life...it was really true no such rule applied. As such, something as simple as perspective could change an otherwise good or bad thing into its opposite.

Was his arrival on the Planet actually an equivalent exchange for his brother, was it a punishment? Did either of them truly make sense? When he factored in the obvious existence of Minerva, who clearly favored him and his actions for some reason, the answer wasn't clear-cut, but both options seemed to fall short.

Looking up slowly, he said, "It's not really any different from when Mom died...it's just losing a lot more people at once. It's still basically part of the cycle of life, and I really have to stop applying Equivalent Exchange to life itself." His gaze then focused on Balto and he asked, "But why did you irrefutably designate me as a brother instead of some other family relation?"

"I couldn't refer to you as a cousin when that's basically how I reference Zack and most of the other youngsters in Gongaga, and for my purposes, you're too old to be my son, so—well, to me, pretty much every Turk falls into the 'brother' or 'sister' category, not even niece or nephew or aunt or uncle because they're all within the age range where that would just be strange to me," Balto shrugged.

"...Zack's your cousin? Angeal's 'Puppy' is your cousin?" Eden blinked in something like stunned amazement and bemusement.

"Most of the families in Gongaga are distantly related to one another," Balto replied in mild amusement. "We're something like third cousins once removed. He was about twelve when I—left Gongaga. In a way, my having left probably had a lot to do with why he did as well, since he just up and left several months later."

Suddenly, for some reason, the sixteen-year-old was overcome with the desire to laugh—and he let himself give in to it, making the two older Turks blink at him in surprise as Rude withdrew his hand. When the younger teen stopped laughing, he leaned his arms on the side of the tub and rested his chin on them, closing his eyes as he smiled faintly. The laughter had been cathartic and he felt a great deal better than he had before doing so, and he felt better still when Rude's hand returned to his head.

"Thanks," he told them quietly, then dropped into sleep.

After he'd fallen asleep, the two men stayed there silently for a few minutes before Balto sighed and commented, "That's really a lot to take in."

"Do you believe him?" Rude asked curiously.

"Do _you_?" the younger man asked with a faintly amused smile.

There was a pause, then the darker man said, "I do."

Nodding, the black haired Turk said, "If it was someone else or some other circumstance, I probably wouldn't, but too many of the things he says and does, too many of the things he doesn't know, how vague references to his past are...they all form a pattern with no real explanation. Even Reno and I had a discussion about how little he knew about common technology anyone can use, amongst a few other things. Then, there's the emotional impact it has on him. To be honest, whether he's telling us 'the truth' or not, he's telling us what he knows as _his reality_ , so we have to take it as fact, even if that reality is a fabrication."

"It's not one," Rude replied.

"How do you know?" Balto blinked.

The older Turk pointed at the sleeping blond's metal leg and said, "Reeve _doesn't know it_. He's still learning."

"...Reeve doesn't recognize a cybernetic prosthetic which should be no more advanced than Veld's arm?"

"He doesn't. It's too advanced."

The words made Balto pause, then admit, "That's actually a very strong point in favor of his being from somewhere else...but that would mean their prosthetics are more advanced than ours while all the rest of their technology isn't..." A moment later, the man snorted and said, "Actually, that helps validate the point _because_ it's so ass-backwards." Rude gave him an amused look, so he said, "Let's put Eden to bed, then. He needs a proper sleep after this long without."

Rude nodded and reached for the nearest towel.

 **Notes:**

(1) I think this actually happened in the original FMA, not Brotherhood or the manga, but I figured it was both a small enough incident and a valid one for Ed to have encountered in both story lines, and it was a valid example to use here.


	4. Interlude--Eden is an Alien?

**A/N:** Since the Salvation's Hands readers (many of whom also also are reading this) wanted some thoughts from people about how they resolve what they now know about Ed, I decided to use an insert in Fates of Worlds as well, but with some significant differences. For example, Genesis has no idea Eden is from another world, so he won't be in here at all.

This is happening after Ed's admission to Rude and Balto and before he wakes up in the morning. Hope it works as well as the Salvation's Hands one!

Interlude—Eden is an Alien?

Tseng sat tiredly in his office around seven thirty in the morning as he wondered what he was supposed to do now.

About an hour before, he'd been woken by a call from Balto, and the news the man had given him was—shocking. He had realized much of it wasn't new data, but the parts which were happened to be on the extreme end of mind-boggling. In such circumstances, normally he'd be likely to have one of two reactions: either the person was certifiably insane (he'd send them to the psych ward), or they were telling the truth (he'd hand them to Hojo for experimentation). It wasn't that he wanted to see people suffer, it was that he'd either want them out of society with such a mental problem or he'd want to know what made them tick.

What held him back from both was the fact that the person he'd have to take either action with was Eden, and he couldn't bring himself to either so discredit him or cause him so much suffering.

At first, he'd leaned toward a mental problem, but then he'd remembered there were just too many small things which didn't add up any other way because they were so intrinsic, habitual, and different from the Planet's version of them. That was besides how he knew for a fact that Reeve didn't really know much of anything about the prosthetics Eden called auto-mail. But the blond himself was his only evidence, so was it really something he could believe, that Eden was really from another planet entirely, or was it just a very elaborate hallucination?

If he took it as true, what did it mean for the Planet's and Shinra's safety?

Actually, looking at things from what he knew of Eden, at best, it was Shinra in danger of collapse, and that was either because of its executives or the native 'Gaians', not Eden directly. The blond was more of a very useful resource book than a key player in forcing change with physical action in a personal sense. And that was regardless of whether Eden was clinically insane or legitimately from another world.

His head was starting to hurt from how hard he was thinking about something with no clear answer.

There was a knock on the door before it was pushed open to reveal Reno, who was there strangely early. "Is something wrong for you to be here so early, Reno?"

"Nah, I was just bored as Hades, yo," Reno replied. "But ya look like you got somethin' pretty major on your mind, Bossman."

Tseng rubbed his forehead as he felt a headache coming on. Reno was bored, at this time of the morning, when he'd usually still be sleeping? "Why are you _really_ here, Reno?"

Silence fell for a few moments, then the red haired eighteen-year-old asked, "They find Eden, yo?"

"Yes, they did," the Wutain agreed, looking up. "Balto told me he and Rude found him in his room after his mind apparently shut down for awhile. Why?"

"He gonna be okay?"

"Most likely. He just needs some time to recover and get his act together again."

Reno was silent for another moment, then moved to sit across from him and asked shrewdly, "What'd ya learn about him ta make you so— _out of sorts_ , yo?"

Tseng stared at him for a few long moments before deciding he'd end up having to tell all the Turks eventually, or they'd find out piece-meal and in all the wrong ways. "Apparently, according to what he told Rude and Balto, he's from another world entirely. He had done some things he shouldn't have done which left scars—like apparently having only just now discovered he had no trust in himself or others."

For over a minute, Reno sat across from him silently with a thoughtful expression—then asked, "So what part's the problem, yo?"

With a glare, the Wutain replied, "All of it, right from the start. I never actually thought he would be insane with everything he seems to fully grasp."

Reno blinked at him. Then he blinked a second time. Then, to Tseng's surprise, Reno told him, "You're a fuckin' moron if ya think where he's from's a problem."

"Isn't it? But no—his questionable sanity is—"

"He's more sane than Anki (1) was an' you were great with her, yo."

"People don't come from other worlds, Reno."

Silence fell again, then Reno asked, "Say he was from Banora instead of somewhere else. Would ya have called him insane, yo?"

"That's not the point!" Tseng retorted irritably.

Sighing, Reno got up and said, "Fine, ya want to have a pity party, go right ahead. For the record, yo—Eden ain't insane, and he ain't lyin' 'bout where he came from. 'Cause, ya know, I've seen folks create 'new' identities. There're always tiny points, things ya can't just change 'cause ya don't even know you do 'em. He's got all those tiny points which ain't from this world, an' those 're what show it—they coulda only come from somewhere else, yo. If he ain't lied about anything except that—you'd know if he had—it ain't likely he'd lie now. And for the other, 'bout his bein' from another world—he's just like you 'n' Sora, just from further away. You're turnin' a mole-hill into a mountain, Bossman." The red haired Turk then walked out, leaving Tseng staring after him with his mouth hanging open in shock.

After a long silence, while Tseng was still staring at the door, Emma looked in and commented, "We _know_ Eden, and we all know he's neither insane nor prone to lying. I'll admit I'm shocked by what I overheard about his origins, but really—Reno simplified it perfectly. If we didn't know him already, I'd be a lot more worried about either his sanity or our safety—or both—than I am."

"...Emma, why are you even here this early?" the Wutain Turk asked her tiredly.

"Uh—because nearly _all_ the Turks are here to make sure he's okay. And we all heard what you and Reno talked about. I'm telling you to get over yourself and figure out what's _really_ got you so upset about the revelation."

He gave her a faintly amused look as he asked, "Are you playing 'big sister' to me again _now_? You haven't done that since I was fifteen."

"Hey, it's _my_ job to play big sister to everyone!" Cissnei's scowling voice came from the large office behind Emma. Several chuckles were roused by her words, even as Emma gave Tseng an amused look. When the chuckles tapered off, the younger, red haired Turk added, "But my 'big sisterly' advice is the same as Emma's!"

The man had to sigh as the smile on Emma's face became a smirk and she told him, "Setting aside our little-big-sister-complex out there—" She was punctuated by another annoyed 'Hey!' from the younger Turk. "—I went to school with you for years, Tseng. I _know_ what you're like, and you have a habit of getting annoyed by little things when the big ones don't actually bother you—they're just your excuse to get mad. It doesn't help that there really aren't any 'small' points in the situation, just 'less important' ones. If you don't sort yourself out soon, though, you'll end up lashing out at someone, probably him, and that's not fair to _any_ one."

After a pause, the Wutain got up and went to look out into the office—Balto and Rude were really the only ones missing, of those who were in Midgar at the moment. Yes, he couldn't deny Eden was firmly established as a Turk, since it had been that very reason which kept him from doing something unforgivable to the younger blond. No one seemed particularly upset, more like a cross between curious, confused, and understanding in various combinations across the group. Even Kariya didn't seem to be all that upset, just—intrigued, and he would have been the one most likely to not take things well due to his age.

"All of you don't see any problem with this information?" he asked.

"Nope," Kariya was the one who answered. "Frankly, seeing what he did to the courtyard in Costa del Sol where we fought the Restrictors and Weiss was more than enough for me to think he was from another world. It's kinda disorienting to realize my thoughts back then were more true than not, but otherwise—exactly what's wrong? No more than there is with _you_ being here."

"There's also the fact that there's really no record of Eden on this world," Ruluf added. "Yeah, there's a few places where that would be possible, but going to them doesn't result in any trace of recognition of him from the people. There was no record in Deepground, either, and that was the one unit where he could have grown up for us to not have records. And all his little quirks still don't match the ones of people from Deepground—like 'Anthony'."

At that, Tseng blinked in surprise and asked, "What about Cadet Valentine?"

"Besides the fact that I'm pretty sure he's that Deepground Tsviet called Weiss, you mean?" Ruluf asked dryly in reply, and several other Turks nodded agreement. "You did a good job hiding him, but some things still show as traits even Shelke and Sora—and the others we rescued from there—have. Those also match notably with people we can trace on this world. Eden's don't. I've still never gotten any impression from him that he meant harm, and that's a great deal more important than where he originally came from. If anything, the fact that he's so willing to put himself out to help people who have nothing to do with him is a point in favor of saying he's trustworthy."

As he rubbed his forehead as he debated how to answer, Cissnei put in, "I think the only thing I really find annoying is that he didn't just tell us all this in the _first_ place, so I'm put out that he didn't trust us sooner. Logically, though—if he'd told us before, the results probably wouldn't have been as good as they are now, so he was doing the right thing by keeping that detail to himself."

"In that case, why did he suddenly decide to reveal it?" the Wutain asked irritably.

"'Cause he don't care right now, yo," Reno replied from where he'd settled by Cissnei. "Ya said he had a breakdown, so he probably wasn't thinkin' straight an' didn't care much 'bout the danger, either."

Finally, Tseng heaved a deep sigh and went back to his office to sit and stare out his window while he thought. For him, it wasn't a simple question or a simple answer, but Emma was right and the difficulty came from something smaller than the point itself. Where the blond was from had never especially mattered to him or Veld, and he was aware of that, but something about Cissnei's words about trust had resonated with him. On the other hand, with how much Eden had told him which had been true in both cases, he knew the only thing Eden had done was omit some key, survival-based points.

In that case, was his problem the same as hers?

After another hour of thought, he realized it at least partially was—he was feeling put out that Eden had trusted him with so much, but not with his actual origins. It was logical for him to have kept that back, but largely, he would have liked to have been the one told after everything was said and done.

That wasn't to say there was no further issue to wrap his mind around, because he was still torn between thinking he was borderline insane and that he was actually an alien. Again, as all the Turks had cited, there were too many other-worldly quirks Eden had to discount the possibility of him actually being from another planet, but to offset that, he was his only proof, and there was nothing else which could validate it, they only had his word and those odd quirks.

And he was right back to where he had started.

Sighing, Tseng got up and went to pull out the file with the data they had on Eden in it, flipping through it slowly as he read bits here and there. It took him about half an hour, but as he flipped back to the employee photo and stared at it for a minute, he remembered one of Reno's earliest questions—if Eden had said he was from Banora instead, would he have ever thought something was wrong with his sanity?

He wouldn't have.

Rising as he shut the file, he put it back where he'd gotten it from and left the office to head for Eden's room. The other Turks watched him go in mild surprise, but didn't say anything and didn't follow him.

When all was said and done, Eden could be from another world or think he was from one all he wanted—everything else about him was knowledgeable, intelligent, and sane. If he _was_ from another world, Tseng only felt put out by finding out that detail the way he had, and if it was a sign of insanity, Eden was _still_ one of the most _sane_ people on the Planet right then. He was a friend, an ally—a Turk.

He was going to stay that way, because the Turks were a family unto themselves and looked after one another. The Wutain had no intention of casting him aside now—

And _that_ left him to deal with his fear for the younger Turk's well-being, which was the _actual_ root cause of his upset, he finally realized.

 **Notes:**

(1) This is one of my created 'old hands', who are the ones who are all dead. I based her general character design on Lawrence of Arabia, meaning even though she's damned good at what she does and manages to accomplish things others thought were impossible, she's literally borderline insane/psychotic. If anyone's wondering why I assess her and Lawrence of Arabia that way—Lawrence said in one scene that he murdered a child, and he wanted to be taken off the battlefield not because it damaged him to do so, but because it DIDN'T. In this case, being a Turk, Anki's ability to feel nothing for killing a child ends up being a good thing, so she's encouraged to follow it, and her level of 'insanity' is actually higher than Lawrence's. Since Tseng and Reno are discussing Eden's sanity or lack thereof, she's the best example to pull in.


	5. 03-Recovery, Again

Recovery, Again

When Ed next woke, he saw—Genesis of all people!—sitting in the chair next to the bed. When had he gotten to the bed? And actually, why was Genesis there and looking so worried? There was no missing the nervous energy in his lightly-tapping foot and perpetual shifting in the chair, and even though he had a book in his hands, he was staring down at it blankly and worriedly, never turning any pages. The Turk knew he was missing a lot, because he had no idea how many days he'd crashed for in the first place, but he'd thought the older man...had given up on him.

Mako-blue eyes suddenly met his gold and the red haired man rose to move over to sit on the edge of the bed, book tucked in his pocket. Those glowing eyes met gold again as the SOLDIER said, "Balto and Rude told me how you wound up interpreting my words and actions that day. I had guessed something hadn't transmitted correctly, but I never imagined you would really think I—basically, that I had come to hate you. Eden, weren't you the one who told me feelings don't just go away?" As the blond's eyes widened, Genesis' grew sad. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been about you since then? I was afraid you had done something stupid because of me, and if Rude and Balto hadn't tracked you down so quickly, you actually could have _died_ —how do you think I would have felt then?"

Tears filled Eden's eyes again as Genesis reached up to grip his shoulder firmly. "You're one of my closest friends, like Sephiroth and Angeal, someone it would destroy me to lose, especially if it was because of something I had done, whether I realized it or not until it was too late." In the next moment, the red haired man had gripped both his shoulders and begun shaking him as he nearly yelled, "Don't _ever_ do something so foolish again!" The sudden shaking had effectively startled him out of a need to cry. Another moment later and Eden was pulled into a tight hug. "When no one had seen you the next day, my heart almost stopped and I thought, had I just exchanged one suicide for another?" The man then wept quietly on Eden's shoulder for several minutes, and the blond was left in a puzzling state of mixed sorrow, confusion, and guilt.

A soft rapping on the door frame made Eden look up at Tseng, who watched the pair evenly for a minute before asking, "Have you calmed down, Genesis?" It didn't take much to see that Tseng was very carefully controlling his emotions, giving nothing away, and that somehow worried him.

"How long has it been since he ate?" Genesis asked in reply, face still resting on the younger's shoulder, though he had mostly stopped crying by then.

"Rude is returning with his meal, probably the first he's had since stepping off the Highwind," Tseng replied.

"...How long has it been?" Eden asked quietly, and Tseng met his gaze with a strangely veiled expression.

"Rude and Balto found you the morning after you had vanished for an entire day," the Wutain Turk said. "That was yesterday. You've slept right through until now, though, so you couldn't have eaten any earlier than this. Two and a half days without food isn't going to kill you, but that doesn't mean it's healthy or something to be encouraged. Also, because it's been as long as it has, we're keeping the first meal light."

"...I see..." After a pause, Eden sighed, "I'm sorry."

"For?" Tseng asked, his tone decidedly curious.

"Well, for worrying everyone...I didn't even realize..." the blond began.

"Oh, no, you realized, but at that point, in your mind, no one would care anyway, so you didn't think it would matter," the older Turk answered in that calm, even voice. The red haired man lifted his head off Eden's shoulder to turn a glare on the Wutain, but he went on like he didn't see Genesis' expression, "That's on a whole different level than 'not realizing you worried people'. And Genesis, I need to ask you to wait in the main room while I talk with Eden privately for a few minutes."

In response to the words, Genesis looked at Eden, who made a small face but gave a nod. The older man gripped the younger's shoulder for another minute, then rose and walked out of the room, and Tseng shut the door behind him before moving over to the bed and sitting in the place the SOLDIER had previously occupied.

"This is about where I'm from, isn't it?" the blond asked quietly.

"Not especially," Tseng answered, meeting the startled, golden gaze. "It fills in some blanks, but I found I didn't _care_ where you're from once I adapted to it. I actually wanted to suggest that you go see Aeris at some point in the near future, since her ties to Minerva might actually be able to answer some of your questions. I won't be able to go with you, but I know you can find her on your own. There was something you said which really stood out—do you have a purpose here? By what you assessed, your being here is either in exchange for your brother's life or your punishment for trying again to raise the dead, but exactly what are you exchanging for your brother's life if it's the former? You may know 'Truth' better, but a being like that doesn't seem like the type to arbitrarily drop you on some other world for the sake of doing so—that's not an exchange for anything. If that's the case, isn't it safe to say either you're being punished or you have a definite reason for being here—a purpose?"

"...But is that a self-imposed one or—"

"I'd actually place bets on it being Minerva's idea to bring you—or maybe just 'someone' Truth deemed suitable—here to help save us. In that case, your purpose is Minerva's and Truth's, but it was still your choice to take up the cause or not, and how you would go about it. I have a few reasons for thinking that. The first is that blank spot in your memory. The second is how you apparently know our language when I find it hard to believe two different worlds would speak and write exactly the same language. The third is how much help Minerva seems to be giving you. I have a question, though. Would it really be so bad to have no real purpose besides the ones you set for yourself?"

"...I've never been without a definite purpose, Tseng. It's too easy for me to lose sight of my goal without that."

"So you can't save Felicia's life just for the sake of saving it, you have to save it because saving it saves the world, too?" The Wutain's brow rose as he asked the question.

"What? No, that's not what I mean," Eden replied with a scowl which became a puzzled frown. "It's more like...I'd be able to save her life anyway because that _is_ a definite and necessary goal. It's...the purpose for my life I lose track of too easily. I save her—and then what? What do I do? Research? Little dead-end missions? Open some, say, Materia shop somewhere? What's the point? What am I doing it for? I can't live that way, I don't know _how_. Just—to make some money, have a family—that doesn't work for me. Bursts of excitement around paperwork doesn't work for me, either. There's no _reason_ for any of that. Trying to save the world, trying to fix my brother, trying to save Felicia—those are things I can focus on, things I can tangibly work towards over a long period of time. Without that—I'd stop moving and wouldn't start again without another real goal to work towards."

Tseng released a small sigh, his expression faintly amused. "You think too much, in other words. Rude is definitely correct in that. To be clear, I don't disagree with the sentiment, but any goal you set has a conclusion, a point where you've reached it and there's nothing more to do. You go through those goals remarkably quickly, so I could feasibly see you actively running out of them before you died—even a goal as broad as saving the world because of how many of us you've dragged along for the ride. So tell me, you save the world...and then what? You become a doctor so you're repeatedly jumping from save-a-life goal to save-a-life goal? I think you need to find meaning besides perpetual goals in life, and in _your_ life."

The blond blinked at him, then looked away. "None of that is the reason I collapsed."

"No, it isn't...but is the reason something you want to talk about with me after already discussing it with Rude and Balto?" When the younger Turk didn't answer, the black haired man said, "I didn't think so. Just tell me, will you be ready to take up guard duty again three days from now?"

Lifting his shoulders in a shrug, Eden replied, "Probably. Today to recover and tomorrow and the day after to re-familiarize myself with Midgar should be fine. Do I report to you before going to Rufus the morning after that, or do I go straight to him?"

"I'd actually like you to stop in at my office after supper the evening before so we can talk about a few points, then you can go right to him in the morning," the older Turk answered, then rose. "Also—today and tomorrow, we've asked Angeal's Puppy to keep an eye on you, so if you go out, he'll be going with you. Do us all a favor and don't try to lose him, because he's there to make sure you're not over-straining yourself after this, not to interfere in what you do or where you go. Actually, Angeal ordered him to pretend he saw and heard nothing unless you literally meet someone to discuss murdering someone we don't want dead."

The words made the teen snort. "Like that would happen. Thanks, though."

After a pause, the man said, "At least you're getting back to normal now. If it isn't one thing with you, it's another." He went to the door and put his hand on the knob, then said, "I'll let the others back in now." Tseng then stepped off to the side of the door and opened it. Genesis almost bolted back into the room the instant the door had begun opening, followed by Rude, who carried a tray of food, Balto, Zack, and Angeal.

"Nice call, Tseng," Eden told the Wutain in amusement, making the others turn to look for the Wutain—and seeing him pressed against the wall beside the door and smiling faintly as he gave a nod.

"I rather figured that would happen after I asked Genesis to leave," the man replied.

"Asked or ordered?" Genesis shot back. "You phrased it as a request, but it wasn't."

"Though, I would have let you stay if Eden had asked that you be allowed to," Tseng informed him. "It was his decision, mainly because of what he suspected we would be discussing. We _did_ touch on it, but it wasn't the central focus of it."

"Fine," the red haired man scowled faintly, then faced the blond again as he sat on the edge of the bed. "I'm still not entirely sure what it was that made you think I'd..."

Rude chose that moment to hand the tray he carried to Ed, who blinked at it as his hands automatically reached up to grip and balance it. On it was a bowl of soup and two slices of toast with what looked like fruit juice for a drink.

After assessing that, the teen looked up at Genesis and said, "Your words put me in a very bad head-space—not that you shouldn't have said them, just that they...well, hit way too close to home in a way I didn't expect, like you'd stuck a knife in my heart and twisted it. There wasn't—any inflection in your voice that I could hear at that point, so it was like a complete lack of caring, whether anger or something like worry. With the topic we finished with and my head-space at that point, that sort of pushed me over an edge I didn't know I was standing on. It's nothing more complicated than that, and not something I usually do...but you lot _all_ seem to be pushing me over those edges a whole lot."

"Do you think we're wrong to do it?" Balto asked as Genesis just stared at the young Turk in shock.

Eden had to actually think about that for a minute before shaking his head. "These were always things wrong with me, but no one back home ever addressed them—they pretty much just all left me to my own devices. Well, I guess they figured I was so strong and capable it wouldn't be necessary and wouldn't matter if they let me be. I didn't know these things were wrong, so I guess this is my learning curve. I've grown up a lot over the last year...and part of that is learning to face, deal with, and let go of all those things I've been hurting myself with. If you're the catalyst for that, I guess that's okay...I'd sort of expect my new family to be the ones to do it, since my old family were the catalysts for everything else, good and bad, from before now."

"How philosophical of you," Angeal commented in amusement. "It's good to know you're willing to take it and move forward, rather than stagnating where you are mentally and emotionally. I know a lot of people who want to just keep everything wrong with them, to keep hurting themselves, as you said."

The young Turk nodded and said, "Yeah, I've known people like that, too. When they _know_ something's wrong and do nothing about it, well...That's just disturbing. At least I can't be accused of that, because my biggest problem was in not even being aware anything was wrong until you pointed it out." His golden gaze then went to Genesis as he asked, "What did you mean before?"

"What part?" the older man asked in amusement as he pointed at the blond's tray.

Looking down at the soup and toast for a moment, Eden looked back up and asked, "When you said you thought you'd exchanged one suicide for another." He then actually started eating the soup, eyes on the red haired man as he did, ignoring how shocked and worried the others looked at the words.

"The person I was looking for, we finally tracked him down that night, just in time to stop him from doing exactly what you thought—committing suicide. I've been working with him to figure out how to deal with the new knowledge he has, but he's still pretty erratic, though I guess I'd expect that from a ten-year-old boy, anyway. But the next day, you were nowhere to be seen, so it wasn't far for my mind to jump from the state you'd been in when you left my office to what we'd been discussing—someone going insane and suiciding—to you picking up those same cues and following along," Genesis explained. "It's not an uncommon reaction or effect...But it's a very frightening one."

The teen stopped moving for a few moments before sighing and saying, "You weren't actually wrong to think that." At the words, everyone's eyes widened in horror, so he quickly went on, "I wasn't _thinking_ about dying. There wasn't anything that tangible in my actions or my thoughts when I—crashed. More like...to me, I had lost everything in both my homes, so I just lost the will to do anything. I wasn't hungry or thirsty, I could barely make myself get up to use the toilet—I _couldn't_ get up for something as inane as getting some fresh air. All of it just had no meaning anymore. So no, I wasn't suiciding by that definition, it's just that the result of that whole thing could have led to it. I'm not entirely sure how I went from normal to that kind of head-space in the first place, really, but—I'm not happy with the result of it, either."

"...You're an awfully high maintenance younger brother, you know that?" Balto commented in wry amusement, causing several chuckles around the room as the others relaxed and the horror and tension broke.

"And one I can't actually leave unattended until Fuhito is taken care of," Tseng added. "You should at least be safe enough in Midgar itself, but outside it—there wouldn't be enough eyes on the lookout. Returning you to guard duty is truly the best option right now, also because I know for a fact Rufus is getting very annoyed by having Sephiroth and Reno as guards—he wants _you_."

"So does Yufi," Eden shrugged. "I don't get it, either, especially since I figured she'd hate me for spanking her when she's never been punished before. Instead, my spanking her made her want me more."

The others chuckled at that, then Angeal looked at Zack and said, "Well, the rest of today and tomorrow is up to you, Puppy."

"Hey! Stop calling me that!" Zack pouted momentarily, then grinned good-naturedly.

"Make sure he eats and stay close to him," the SOLDIER First's mentor went on with a small, amused smile. "The rest of us should clear out so he can rest."

"I don't want to—" Genesis began to say.

"You can wait until tomorrow to discuss things further," Angeal told the red haired man dryly.

"Call any of us if you need us," Rude told the blond Turk, resting his hand on the younger's head for a minute. He then turned and walked out, followed by Balto after the older man ruffled Ed's hair. Tseng then gave Eden a nod and left, causing Angeal to raise a pointed brow at Genesis as he pointed towards the door.

Finally, the pouting, red haired SOLDIER rose and said, "I'll visit again tomorrow, then." He waited until he saw a nod from the blond, then left, followed by Angeal, who gave a parting wave before going, his hand resting on Genesis' shoulder on the way.

"Do you want me to go back to the main room so you can rest again?" Zack asked his new charge curiously.

Giving his head a shake, Eden said, "I actually feel very normal today, and there's someone I really want to visit once I've eaten. My friend lives in the Slums, though, so it's a bit of a trek."

"Okay. Finish up and just let me know when you're ready to head out. I'll notice if you start getting tired—Sephiroth actually taught me signs like that while he was guarding Rufus," Zack chuckled. He then left the room to go to the main one and sit.

For his own purposes, the blond finished his meal fairly quickly and went to have a shower, then changed into his normal clothes rather than his uniform. Once he was dressed, he stepped into the main room, where Zack was doing squats to use up some energy.

Eden stared at the black haired sixteen-year-old in bemusement for a couple minutes, then asked, "Is that what you do to use up excess energy, Zack?"

The other teen face him with a grin. "It sure is! Been doing it since I was a little kid. Ready to go?"

"Yeah," the blond agreed, heading to the door. Zack followed him.

As he stepped into the hall, the blond's eye was drawn by a black box near the ceiling a ways down the hall, making him frown at it momentarily in puzzlement.

Zack leaned close to his ear and whispered, "The Turks know already. Tseng's taking care of it, so you don't need to. Just don't talk in the hall until then unless you don't care if whoever put it there knows."

Eden nodded and took the lead again, ignoring the box as he headed for the exit to the Shinra building.

Needless to say, the trip to Aeris' home was very interesting, largely because Eden didn't realize when he was getting tired and Zack was forcing him to stop and rest—frequently. To him, he was just normal, didn't feel tired at all, but apparently the black haired teen was seeing something which made him think the blond was getting tired and needed to rest. As a result, the trip took much longer than Eden had thought it would, but he learned very, very quickly that he actually wasn't strong enough to fight Zack off if the other teen forced him to sit, so he had to just sigh and wait until Zack let him get up again to keep going.

When he knocked on Aeris' door, Zack asked, "What's with all the flowers?"

"Ask Aeris," the blond Turk replied dryly.

"Who?" the black haired teen asked blankly.

The door opened right then and Aeris asked, "Hello?" She then saw who was there and jumped up to hug him around the neck as she said, "Eden, you're back!" She then let go of him and held him at arm's length as she said knowingly, "You look like crap. Now I know why Minerva was worried about you."

"...Minerva was worried about me?" Eden echoed in puzzlement.

The younger girl nodded seriously and said, "She really was. What happened?"

"Er...Can we please not have that kind of discussion out here?" the blond asked. In response, her gaze moved to Zack, who gave her a good-natured grin. "He's just here to make sure I stay in one piece and rest often enough. Actually, Zack's orders are to pretend he heard and saw nothing unless he hears me plotting to kill someone we want kept alive."

First, Aeris blinked at the words, then giggled and said, "All right, come inside." She let them in and began making tea as she called, "Mom, Eden's here to visit!"

"All right, just let me know if you go out anywhere," Elmyra called back tiredly.

"Okay!" the brown haired girl agreed. "She's resting, so keep your voices low," she added to the two young men while she worked and Eden flopped down at the table. Zack sat in the seat beside the blond, waiting quietly while Aeris prepared the tea.

However, that only lasted for a minute before Zack rose with a small huff and said, "Don't mind me, I need to expend some energy." He then began quietly doing squats in the space near the door.

Aeris blinked at him in something like amazement, then began giggling as she said, "I've never met anyone who can't even sit still for a minute! Introduce us, would you, Eden?" She turned back to the kettle, but kept one eye on the black haired teen as he openly and good-naturedly smiled at her.

"Yeah...Zack, meet Aeris Gainsborough, and Aeris, meet SOLDIER First, Zack Fair. His mentor calls him Puppy, and the rest of us are starting to call him Mr. Battery. Especially since he can Master a Materia in less than two hours from nothing, and can do that several times in one night—and _still_ have this much energy left over (1)," Eden explained smugly.

"That much?" the fifteen-year-old asked in amazement.

"Yup, that much," Zack agreed with a wide grin, still doing squats. "More, actually, if it's just basic elements or something small like that. I haven't been doing enough big things lately."

"...I always thought SOLDIERs were really scary because of their Mako infusions..." Aeris said quietly, moving the tea service over to the table without looking at Zack.

Abruptly, the teen stopped doing squats and moved over to stand in front of her, saying as he did, "Hey, have a look at my eyes and tell me what you see."

She slowly looked up at him and met his glowing, blue gaze for a minute before tentatively saying, "It's like...the sky outside Midgar...above the Upper Plate..."

"It's not scary at all, is it?" he asked with a grin.

Aeris just smiled softly and poured the tea.

 **Notes:**

(1) Zack's limit cap for Mastering is closer to 1 hour for a low-level element like Fire or Lightning (or things in a similar range), around 2 for mid-range things closer to the Revive or Odin level, and around 4 for things like Final Attack, Shield, and Ultima. My justification for this not having happened in the original is basically just because Genesis and Angeal had both pretty much gone insane before they could even suggest to him that he push all that excess energy (which he has way too much of for someone in a combat role) into. As such, in Crisis Core, all he was doing was using the same 'general absorption' method everyone else does, which has a much (s)lower progression than Zack's current method.


	6. 04-Purpose and Presence

**A/N:** For Salvation's Hands readers: this chapter and the next are similar to SH in the general event and some of the discussions (it took twice as many chapters in SH, though), but the over-all scenario is quite different.

New Question

Almost half an hour later, Aeris and Eden were sitting at the table with tea in front of them while Zack had finished his tea and gone back to doing squats, and Eden had just finished telling Aeris about why he 'looked like crap'. She pondered the words for a few minutes before looking up at the blond teen again and asking, "So...what was it you _did_ come here for, since it's not actually to talk about that?"

"I wanted to know if you—or Minerva, rather—actually knew what had gone on with my brother and why I'm here?" he asked hopefully. "Minerva should understand what you—what I—mean."

Her eyes went warily to Zack for a moment, then she closed them and gave a small nod as she said, "I'll ask and see if I can get an answer, then. It may take a bit, though."

"That's fine," Eden agreed. For a few minutes, she sat quietly with her eyes closed as Zack threw the blond a confused look and got a dismissing wave in reply.

When her eyes opened again, she said, "Your brother was restored, but you only had one way to do so, which was to give up your life there and to fix something for it, but it would be a one-way trip. There were several other places you could have been sent, but apparently this was the one both where you could do the most good and where you were most needed. Apparently, the 'exchange' was your life for your brother's which would originally have meant your death, but the entity making that decision had found another, more beneficial use for you, which was to send you elsewhere with the restriction that you could never go back home once you had left.

"At this point, Minerva thinks you may not be enough by yourself, even though so much has changed for the better already, but she's not willing to give up yet, and there's still time to fix things. She's been helping you, and you've really managed to fix a lot and save a lot more people than she ever expected, so she's really happy you came—things are still better with your help than they'd have been without it," the girl's green eyes met Eden's surprised gold as she finished what she was passing on to him.

"Eden, she pays really close attention to you, and what you did—it scared her, because if she'd lost you right now, it all would have come crashing down. Chaos and Omega would have triggered far too soon by your death alone, and nothing good would have come of that. And you _really_ need to remember that there are a whole lot of people you care about, who also care about you, and ones you've never crossed a line with—people like me and Minerva herself. You haven't done anything for either of us which we didn't ask you to do or we legitimately needed your help with. Actually, from what she said, most of the people you know have that view, it's only a very few where you crossed that line or nearly, and doing it once or twice isn't nearly enough for them to change their opinions of you."

"How could my death alone have triggered Chaos and Omega?" the blond teen asked in shock. "I'm just one person..."

"One person tied in to the lives of how many others, who would all mourn you, who all hold positions of great power and the ability to cause great destruction?" she asked in reply. "Including Chaos himself?"

After a pause, Eden paled slightly and said, "Genesis said I was one of the people whose death would destroy him...and his reaction would have dragged Sephiroth and Angeal down with him...Then there's Rude, Tseng, Balto, Felicia, Rufus...It would have become a chain reaction which would have really undone everything...Shit..."

"Sounds like your life isn't your own anymore, Eden," Zack commented as he came up from a squat and stood straight to eye the blond. "And you're underestimating just how highly Angeal and Sephiroth view you if you think it would take Genesis to destroy them. I know for a fact _they_ were just as worried about you as _he_ was, and if you had actually kicked the bucket, _all three_ of them would have crashed. I'm the only one not close enough to you to have crashed from that—not that it wouldn't have hurt—but it would have taken them crashing for me to go down, too."

The Turk rubbed his forehead and sighed as he said, "In that case, my life hasn't been my own almost since I met Rude, because...I think I have a vague memory of how he reacted when he thought I had died at Cosmo Canyon not long after we'd met. And because 'Turks are family'...the rest would have been dragged down, too, but at least at that point, they'd have been able to recover and it wouldn't have meant much. Now...I shudder to think what kind of havoc it would wreck if it was _Tseng_ who went off the deep end like he apparently nearly did while I was in Wutai."

"Oh yeah, him yelling in Wutain over the phone so loudly I could hear it half-way across the room," Zack said in wry amusement, and Aeris' eyes widened in amazement. "That's definitely the _least_ discipline I've ever seen from him, and you weren't even actually in danger of death then. He just snaps when it's you for some reason. Let him loose after you die—he'd probably completely rip apart Midgar in short order, and take every damned person in the city with him."

"I could see him doing that, too," Aeris put in. "After taking his hair down, of course."

"What?" Eden and Zack both asked with puzzled frowns.

"It's old, traditional Wutain culture," she explained. "His hair being tied up like it is symbolizes honor, and letting it down symbolizes a lack of honor, or shame. If he couldn't protect you, he'd take his hair down because of that dishonor, that shame of his failing, then he'd let loose without compunction because he would have just thrown away all honor and his whole moral code. Well, he'd have the option of continuing to live by his moral code and his discipline—but if it was either of us who died, I think he'd just give it all up."

"You're probably right," Eden sighed softly

"Of course, we all might just decide to keep doing what you were pushing us to do, anyway, and still get it all done effectively," Zack threw in, his tone dry. "Yeah, they'd have a collective crash for a bit, but I'm not so sure they'd go the worst route—there's a good chance it'd be the opposite and they'd make sure to honor your memory and get things to turn out as positively as they could."

"I hope so, but then what would Minerva be so worried about if that's what they'd all do?" Eden asked softly, then crossed his arms on the table and dropped his head onto them. "Is it okay if I just rest here and think for awhile?"

"Of course," Aeris agreed.

"Could you show me the flowers outside, Aeris?" Zack asked then, deciding to end the discussion in favor of more time with the brown haired girl.

"Certainly!" the fifteen-year-old agreed with a huge grin. She rose and led the way outside, Zack following her with a grin and Eden staying immobile at the table as he chuckled softly.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there for before another, unexpected voice commented, "I may not have the whole story, but Eden, it sounds like you actually lost touch with reality for awhile." He couldn't have sat there for all that long, but when he looked up, a very much awake and alert Elmyra was standing by the seat where Aeris had been sitting. She looked worried about him.

"By the sounds of it, that's probably an accurate way to describe it," he told her, dropping his head again.

"Did you gain anything from doing so?"

The question took him so much by surprise that he sat up straight and stared at her for a moment before asking, "What?"

She sat down in the chair her daughter had vacated, then asked him, "Had someone who hadn't been telling you their feelings do so because of what you did? Or did you prevent something harmful from happening or cause something beneficial for someone by having a breakdown right then?"

"...You heard the whole thing, didn't you?"

"Most of it," the woman agreed.

Sighing, the young Turk thought about what she was asking, but he really couldn't think of anything. "I don't know. Maybe there's something I'm not aware of, or I can't assess something like that because I'm not registering it as that important...I mean, maybe you're just talking about something as simple as Genesis bluntly saying it would destroy him if I died, because we never really discussed how much the other meant to us before. Come to think of it, Tseng's been acting weird since Balto lit into him about treating me like a tool, not a family member, or even an employee. He keeps getting this veiled expression I can't read, especially if I've recently done or said something that worried him. I hadn't thought much about it before, but I saw it today and wondered what it was all about, but I never had a chance to ask him."

She eyed him for a moment, then asked, "Are you sure you want to know his reason for that? Rather, do you think you're _ready_ to hear it?"

"What do you mean?" the blond asked in confusion.

The dark haired woman just gave a small smile and a dismissive wave before asking, "So, have you given any thought to a nice girl you might like to date? From what I've heard, there's quite a number of Academy students around your age who might be good for you, and even one or two of the lady Turks are about your age, aren't they?" She had the kind of sly grin most mothers who were trying to play matchmaker for a child of theirs got.

"I can't say I've noticed," Eden answered in wry amusement. "And don't suggest Aeris, because she's more like a sister to me—and I kinda think she's actually got a little crush on Zack, and he returns it."

"I noticed, and I wasn't going to suggest Aeris," Elmyra answered in wry amusement. "He seems like a nice young man, not the sort I usually see joining Shinra these days. For my part, I won't stop her from having a boyfriend in Shinra—my husband was a SOLDIER—but...just keep an eye on her, all right? I don't want her to be hurt, even unintentionally."

"I don't think you can actually stop anything unintentional, but I'll do what I can to keep her safe," the blond agreed.

The older woman smiled faintly and gave a nod before her expression became that sly, impish one again and she asked, "So if you haven't thought of any of the girls, does that mean you've been thinking of the boys? You've got even more of them to choose from than you do girls, then, and they range from Academy students to Turks to SOLDIERs, even."

"Huh?" the sixteen-year-old gaped at her, then flushed red and asked, "How the Hell am I supposed to know a thing like that?"

"Are you saying you're _sixteen_ and just haven't thought about anything romantic or sexual _at all_?" the woman asked in amazement. "A sixteen-year-old boy? Even Aeris has an occasional fantasy or crush, and she's a very good girl compared to most. How could you have just missed that altogether?"

Rubbing the back of his head, the blond Turk answered quietly, "I spent all my time until the Turks found me focused on trying to fix the damage I'd done to my brother, and since then—well, you were here for my discussion with Aeris about what I'm trying to do now. I haven't really had time for anything like that, and it was always an unnecessary distraction for me. Nothing in particular ever excited me, either, that I know of...for the same reason. Well, that's besides the fact that I was artificially being kept from truly reaching puberty, but I'm not really—in the mood to talk about that now."

"...You really have no clue about your own preferences, then..." the woman mused.

"No, I don't. And I don't actually see why it matters," Eden replied, giving the woman a small glare.

There was a knock on the door before it opened and Felicia stepped inside—and raised her brow at the blond Turk. "Sorry for interrupting, but did you know your daughter is out in the garden with a SOLDIER First, Elmyra?"

"Yes, thank you, El—er, it's Felicia now, isn't it?" the older woman asked, but her gaze was amused.

Felicia nodded, then asked, "You knew? Why's he here, anyway?"

"He came as my guard—did anyone bother to tell you I had a breakdown the same day we got back from Wutai?" the blond asked. She stared in surprise, then shook her head. "Yeah, so when I woke up today, they said Zack was supposed to stay with me today and tomorrow, with the orders that he's supposed to pretend he saw and heard nothing unless he overhears me plotting to kill someone we want kept alive. His main purpose is to keep me from over-straining myself. Apparently, he and Aeris have crushes on each other."

"...Oh, boy...That makes things harder," Felicia sighed. "We'll figure it out. At least he's not an enemy and not likely to turn her over to Hojo. Now, what are you doing here if I assume you're supposed to be resting, Eden?"

"I came to ask Aeris a few questions, but Elmyra seems to think I need a matchmaker," Eden sighed.

Her brow rose and she asked, "Are you sure you don't?"

"Hey!" the teen yelped as he turned red. "I don't need a matchmaker because _I'm not interested_! Why does it matter so much to both of you, anyway?"

Felicia blinked, then lifted her shoulders in a shrug as she sighed. "Fine, if that's your unanimous response, you should be fine."

"What?" Eden asked in confusion.

She gave a dismissing wave of one hand and said, "If that's the case, our best bet is to work out what to do with Aeris and the Puppy."

"You need to do something with them?" the blond snorted.

"We do, because we have to be sure no one follows him right to her. That also means he has to know she's in danger and what to do to be sure no one outside possibly the Turks will be able to follow him," the younger woman informed him.

"Even then, if you start telling him about that danger, you may cause him to behave in a way which would attract more attention rather than less," Elmyra put in quietly. "It may be better to leave them to it and just watch them."

"My impression of Zack is that nothing much actually changes his way of behaving, so if handled the right way, he'll take care of any watchers himself, without giving himself or her away," Felicia replied, sitting next to Eden.

"Probably," the blond teen agreed. "Anyway, I'd like to rest for awhile now, if you don't mind, so have the rest of your discussion without me." He returned his arms to their folded position on the tabletop and rested his head on them again.

Both women gave him faintly amused looks before turning to one another to work out just what to tell Zack.

FoW

It was approaching evening by the time Zack and Aeris came back inside, both blinking at Felicia in surprise. "Er, why are you here early, Felicia?" Aeris asked with a puzzled smile.

"Wait, _you_ know Felicia of Gaia's Refuge?" Zack asked her in surprise.

" _You_ know her?" the fifteen-year-old girl asked in reply, gazing at him in surprise.

Elmyra looked amused as Felicia said, "Zack and I met in Wutai and returned here together on the Highwind a couple days ago. I came to ask you a question on Reeve's behalf, but Zack being here has given us one more thing to talk about."

"Um, Felicia, why are you _here_ , though? You didn't meet Aeris through Eden as far as I can tell..." the black haired teen commented slowly.

"In a way, yes, and in a way, no," the eighteen-year-old replied. "We had people who were on our watch list to remove from the path of danger should it become necessary. Since Hojo is trying to recapture Aeris, she was on our watch list, with Tseng's and Eden's knowledge and approval. In the meantime, she wants to stay here until it actually becomes _necessary_ for her to leave for her own safety."

The SOLDIER First blinked, then blinked again, then looked at Aeris for a moment before looking at Eden, who still had his head down on his arms on the table. Finally, he looked up at Felicia again and asked, "Okay, so are you trying to tell me not to come, or to be careful when I do?"

Both of the older women seemed mildly surprised at the question, then Felicia's lips quirked and she asked, "Are you planning to come back and visit her, then?"

"Sure. She's really good company, and she's cute, too," Zack agreed with a grin, openly and shamelessly. The words made Aeris begin giggling beside him.

"Told you," Eden commented, tipping his head to the side to look at the woman.

"Plan B, then," the woman agreed, then met Zack's gaze. "Be careful when you come, and be aware that we'll probably be nearby while you're in the area, just in case."

"Oooh, unofficial chaperones. I get it," he chuckled. "That's fine by me. I sort of think if _you_ didn't do that, Tseng would."

"And the Turks can't take that risk," Felicia agreed.

"So exactly who is Reeve, and why do you want to ask me something on his behalf?" Aeris asked curiously.

"Reeve Tuesti is the head of the Urban Development Department, and he's the company's non-weapons engineer," Zack told her.

The girl looked at him, then looked at Felicia, who nodded, then explained, "He was curious about some functions of Mako, and I told him I'd look into it to see if I could give him a basic answer. The question I need you to answer is whether or not the Reactors could return Mako to the Lifestream by reversing the flow of them."

After blinking in surprise, the younger brown haired girl shook her head. "No, it wouldn't. 'Lifestream' is energy, but 'Mako' is a liquid you can touch, so it can't be returned so easily. He'd have better luck turning the Mako into steam and giving it a vent so it can dissipate back into the Lifestream like pyreflies. If that's possible, I don't know, but the problem is making it into an energy the Lifestream can reabsorb. It can't absorb Mako—that's why natural Mako springs exist."

"I see," the older woman mused, then fell silent for a minute before looking at her again. "I'm not sure how Reeve knew, but he's aware of Chaos and Omega, and he wanted to know what Omega is composed of."

"What it's...composed of?" the girl asked in confusion.

Eden sat up at the question and said, "Omega is composed of scrambled genetic data, meaning it can recreate the beings it has here in general terms—or change them based on the existing data—but it can't recreate a specific being, body, soul, and memory intact. The energy of the Lifestream and Minerva's consciousness gives it the power to go to another world and directs that genetic data to reform life." He then paused with a frown and said, "Hold on, if that's the case, Minerva is actually a merging of two Omegas, and her Omega will contain Jenova's genetic data as well as her own."

Everyone else in the room gaped at him in shocked amazement and horror before Aeris asked timidly, "Eden, how do you know any of that?"

"Genesis was reading a poem from some story he really, really adores, and I had no idea what the story was really about—I had a vague idea, I guess. But when I listened to the poem, I realized it had nothing to do with the story it supposedly related to, it was a very direct reference to Chaos and Omega Theory and to Minerva. Except, this world's biggest pitfall in the scientific community is that they don't seem to have any grasp of scientific method, the detailed study of the world and its functions. They don't know the difference between products and bi-products, just to start, and most of their 'theories' seem to be taken randomly out of their hats with nothing to support them, even 'theoretically'."

The others gazed at him thoughtfully as he paused and looked up at Zack, then Aeris. "When I realized the direct reference the poem had to Chaos and Omega Theory, I realized it referenced something else as well—Jeh-nova, the Calamity from the Skies. By assessing what I know of the world and how scientific method applies to it, the only feasible result I could reach was that Jenova was also an Omega, but had come from a destroyed world, badly wounded and half insane. She had the misfortune of landing on a world which already had a Lifestream and life, and which had a race she retaliated against. The only reason she would have retaliated against the Ancients was if there was something about them which _scared_ her, which she perceived as a threat, so she began releasing her genetic data with the intent to destroy them all.

"Instead, they and other life forms here began _assimilating_ her genetic data. The Ancients' forms didn't change or they wouldn't still have been human, and some monsters and animals were still in their original forms as well—those ones had overlapping genetic data. Basically, Jenova and Minerva had created a few of the same races. They had also created many very different races, and that was where most of the 'monsters' came from—the mixing of the genetic data of two worlds. _That genetic data is part of this Lifestream_. How can it _not_ be after thousands of years of infusion, birth, death, and a repeated cycling of those genes? That's the only logical conclusion someone using scientific method could draw—Jenova's genetic data is intimately intertwined with Minerva's."

A long silence followed his words, then Aeris said, "Minerva says she's going to look for the remains of Jenova, and what she finds will decide what she does with them."

"The remains of Jenova?" Eden asked with a raised brow. "You can't just get rid of genetic data once it's there."

The girl shook her head and said, "What's left of her consciousness. It's still there, just a very, very little bit because of the people who have been infused with her cells."

With a sigh, the teen nodded and admitted, "I suppose that's a fair point as well. I wish her luck, then."


	7. 05-Heart-to-Heart

**A/N:** This chapter has a general note, and a note specific to people also reading Salvation's Hands, so the people only reading this path of the story don't have to read the second note (2/SH). (Well, technically no one HAS to read ANY of the notes, but they're there to clear some things up if anyone needs or wants.)

Heart-to-Heart

"...I just thought of something," Zack said suddenly, and Aeris, Eden, Felicia, and Elmyra looked at him, seeing his thoughtful expression. His gaze was on Eden as he said, "It's great to start over on another world, but that would be without our memories—if what Angeal told me is true, we'd all end up dead before going somewhere else. If we don't have the memory of what not to do and why we don't do it, how are we supposed to keep from making the same mistakes? I mean, obviously the Ancients still fell into the trap or we wouldn't have the society we do now."

Everyone was surprised by the words for a few moments, until Aeris said softly, "That's not actually true." They all looked at her in surprise. She looked sad, but she explained, "Well, maybe the Cetra—the Ancients—would have gone this route, but it would have taken them a lot longer when left to their own devices. After Jenova, they were barely still surviving, but Minerva says about a thousand years after Jenova landed here, something she thought was a 'normal' meteor hit her. The Cetra went to investigate because she told them something had arrived with the 'meteor', but...

"They didn't find a meteor. They found a metal structure with technology they had never seen, and humans who at first didn't dissipate into pyreflies when they died. Those people were also dying from Mako poisoning just from being here, in normal air, so the Ancients gave them transfusions, which stabilized them. As generations of those new humans passed, they began to dissipate like the Cetra did, and Minerva accepted them as her children as well. Cetra spent their whole lives traveling, but these other humans didn't. They set up homes, towns, cities, and rooted themselves in those places no matter how much they had to struggle to live there. That's why we have a money system, and why we even know about graves and graveyards.

"Without them, though, there was a good chance the Cetra would have died out completely, because we aren't very prolific, but those other humans were. Families of Ancients were _lucky_ to have two or three children in their lives, but those other humans could help them have five, six, seven, they were so prolific. Mixing the genetics also meant there were Cetra being born without the basic abilities all Cetra had previously had. Hojo thinks there is only one Cetra left, but really, there are many of them—they just don't actively have the abilities of the Cetra. Minerva will activate those abilities again when she feels the time is right."

"So basically, this world is a melting pot of 'otherworldly' influence," Eden commented, and Aeris nodded. He looked back at Zack and said, "But you made a good point, and the only way to circumvent that is if Minerva is able to redesign Omega to act as a literal 'vessel' like the ship running between Junon and Costa del Sol. If she can't, all she can do is try again and hope they learn next time, but if she can make it hold people intact, say in a kind of stasis until she lands somewhere and it becomes habitable, they would have those memories intact, as well as their original forms. That would then be a kind of 'ark' meant to preserve the existing ecosystem as it is rather than her building a completely new one."

He paused and eyed the others for a minute before saying, "And that also has downfalls, because part of the reason this world got so screwed up in the first place is because those people who landed here had their memories intact."

"Damned if you do and damned if you don't," Felicia commented. "That's not very encouraging. Eden, I have to wonder if you actually _are_ human, though."

He was about to reply when Aeris said, "He's human, but he's got more relation to the other humans who arrived here later than to the Cetra." She gazed at him for a moment before she asked, "How can you be a Sentinel, then? That's a branch of the Cetra, but you aren't from here, after all."

Eden blinked at her, then blinked at her again in sudden realization as Zack asked, "You're not...from the Planet, Eden?" (1)

"...The Gate," Eden said to Aeris. "The Gate was the unifying link between the worlds and people used it to cross between them, and when the Cetra stopped using the Gate, they stopped exchanging people—until now."

"Ooooh. Okay," the girl grinned, and the others stared at her as the blond teen gave her a small smile in reply.

"...That's it?" Zack asked her curiously.

"That's it. Since 'humans' are from another world, too, like you, should it matter to me?" Aeris asked him in reply, and he chuckled.

"Good point," he agreed, then looked at Eden. "Are you ready to go, then?"

Eden looked at Felicia questioningly, and she gave a nod. "We're all finished, so you're free to go."

"I want to rest a bit longer, first," the blond teen replied, putting his head back down.

"Of course," the others agreed.

Soon after, Aeris roped Zack into helping with the housework—something he quite happily helped with. When asked why, he explained that he'd been an only child, so had often helped his mother in the kitchen and doing housework. Finally, about forty-five minutes after Eden had put his head down to rest, he felt well enough to head back, so he and Zack said their good-byes and began their trek back to Shinra.

FoW

When Eden woke in the morning, it was to Genesis' and Zack's voices outside his door loudly enough to be heard.

The red haired man was just saying, "Let me in to see Eden!"

Zack's reply was, "He needs his rest, so let him wake up on his own." Eden rose with a sigh and began pulling on a pair of black pants and the nearest shirt—one of the white, button-up, Turk ones.

"Oh, come on, let me in, Zack..." the other man practically whined. Exactly _who_ was the puppy, Zack or Genesis?

"Sorry, but no," the First replied. "Those aren't my orders, and via chain of command, both Angeal and Sephiroth gave me orders to make sure he rests properly, so the General's command trumps yours."

Finally, Eden was dressed, and Zack had just finished talking, so the blond went to the door and opened it to see Zack nearly backed against his bedroom door and Genesis just past him, pouting at the younger First. "Arguing right outside my door doesn't help," he said dryly, making both look at him in mild surprise. "Genesis, next time I need to rest, please just wait for me to get up, and Zack—the next time you're in a situation like this, keep the intruder as far away from the room your charge is in as possible."

"Sorry..." the other teen said wryly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Does this mean I can come in now?" Genesis asked eagerly.

Raising a brow, the blond Turk answered, "I don't know, maybe I should make you wait for awhile after you woke me from a long sleep I obviously needed..." As the red haired man's face fell and turned horrified, Eden gave an impish grin and said, "But I think I'm plenty awake enough now for company, so you may as well come in."

"Oh, you're a brat!" Genesis laughed as he slipped past Zack. He then turned back to the younger First and said, "Go grab Eden a meal—I'll make sure he doesn't do anything too strenuous in the meantime."

Zack looked at Eden for verification, who heard his stomach grumble and gave a wry grin and nod. The black haired teen headed out, so Eden went back into his room and sat on the bed as he asked the older man in red and black, "So, is there anything in particular you wanted to see me for?"

"Besides to make sure you're okay, you mean?" Genesis asked. When Eden nodded, the man crossed his arms and dropped down on the edge of the bed beside the younger teen. "Eden, I don't think my breakdown yesterday covered what I needed to say, but I got kicked out too soon." His arms dropped and he turned to face the blond as he said quietly, "I didn't have the best childhood—not the worst, but far from the best. There are a lot of things it's hard for me to understand and deal with, insecurities I have which don't quite go away no matter how successful I am or how much I trust someone. I mean—I already knew both Angeal and Sephiroth would take me seriously when I told them Angeal and I were dying, and I knew they'd help...My mind had no doubt of those facts, but my emotions had already turned it into the worst case scenario."

The red haired man sighed faintly and looked away for a moment before looking back at Eden to say, "The lack of emotion you got from me that day in my office was because I was struggling with my own insecurities at the same time. When it looked like you felt I couldn't do my own job, it all hit me, those old feelings I had thought I'd overcome, and I didn't dare have a breakdown then and there—I had no idea my own emotional imbalance would do you so much damage. I'd say I'm sorry for that, but I can't really pick and choose when those kinds of things hit me, so an apology would be pointless...What I _will_ apologize for is not keeping you there long enough to explain what had just happened, even though I knew you were hurting when you left."

For a minute, the blond teen just stared at him, then asked quietly, "Even though you knew I was hurting when I left, did you actually have any idea that, or what, you'd need to explain to me to fix it?" Genesis blinked at him in surprise and confusion, then slowly shook his head, so Eden said, "Even if you _had_ stopped me, it wouldn't have done any good, anyway, because my mind was already so far gone I'd lost touch with reality. I completely missed some very obvious things which should have anchored me, things I'd have caught if I'd been myself right then. There was a mis-communication on both our parts, and apparently, that accidental issue caused us both a lot of pain—a lot more than either of us ever expected. It wasn't, and isn't, something you need to apologize for."

"Ed..." the red haired man sighed, then gave his head a small shake. "I guess you've got a point there." His glowing blue gaze met the younger's golden and he said, "You're my friend, like a brother in some ways...I didn't really realize how close I'd gotten to you in such a short time until right then. By default, that means the things you say to me have a lot more impact than if a stranger had said them. Isn't that the same as what happened to you?"

Blinking, the blond agreed, "I think so...It's like how much impact it has on me when Rude or Balto says something. That can go both ways, helpful or destructive. Trying to deal with the Turks being my new family has been hard enough, but if I'd accidentally formed a bond like that—close friends or brotherly—with you as well without even realizing it...I guess that would have increased the impact and my reaction."

Genesis nodded, then gave the younger man a small smile and reached forward on a whim to give him a hug. "And yet, I'd never want to lose the people I treasure right now."

Eden returned the hug as he gave an equally wry smile and admitted against Genesis' shoulder, "Neither would I." He then paused before asking, "Can we both deal with that now?"

"I believe so," the red haired man agreed, letting the blond go and sitting back. "So...The other reason I came is because of something I found while I was looking at my copy of El—Felicia's arrays. I thought you should have a look at it, because I think it's one of the critical components to what we need to do to save her."

"Really? Which component?" the blond asked as he pulled out his copy and began flipping through them.

Rather than try to explain, Genesis took the stack from his hands and flipped through it until he'd found seven particular sheets from the four shards Ed had. Those, he laid out in their rough orientation to each other (it was a circle of a sort) and said, "These seven are identical and resisted being broken, even though they clearly show damage in places. I have a feeling these are so basic and intrinsic to Zirconaide's form that we'll have to include them and work all our other calculations around them."

"Seven...Arrays using seven as the base are the most powerful and difficult to properly form," the young Turk said quietly. "I've used a seven-point array only twice before because of how complex they are to put together so they'll function. If Zirconaide's basic form is actually a seven-point array, you're probably right and everything we do will have to account for that fact. By default, that means moving the broken sub-arrays will be even more touchy, because we actually can't just pick a side to move them to, we'll have to be very specific about where we move them. We also need a much larger space to lay them out in so we can hopefully see the whole thing properly." (2/SH)

"I thought that, too. It's going to be a delicate thing from the start," the older man agreed, nodding. "I haven't found anything intrinsic to which type of Materia it is, though."

"I have a few points on that," Eden replied, taking his papers back and pulling out several arrays, three from each of the five sections. Four of those sets were identical while one was different—the different set came from the one attached to Felicia.

"So you're working instead of resting?" Zack asked in exasperation from the door, making the other two look up at him in surprise. He carried a tray of food in one hand.

With a small grin, Eden answered, "Mentally. I did this in the hospital, too, and they let me, no matter how bad my physical state was. Besides, this is a very important project—Felicia's life depends on it."

Zack blinked, then sighed and nodded. "Fine. At least eat before you get too wrapped up in it." He then moved over to Ed to give him the tray.

In the meantime, Genesis took the pages the Turk had pulled out in order to examine them closely, and while Eden ate, the red haired man sat with one hand to his chin as he calculated something. By the time the blond had finished eating and Zack propelled himself off the wall to take the tray, the older man had laid the five sets of three out next to where they'd oriented the set of seven Genesis had found. Eden eyed the new layout as Zack watched curiously, but the black haired teen stayed silent while the other two eyed the arrays they had scattered across the blond's bed.

"I was comparing multiple Materia arrays and found that these three sub-arrays exist in each one, with only fairly minor differences," Eden said as he tapped one set of three. "Since I have some of all five types, the more I looked, the more I realized these aren't functional so much as formative. I actually don't understand every mark written in to them, and I can only guess at the complete meaning, because the notations they have are basically single words which are disconnected. However, there were some words I realized could very well be defining what 'type' of Materia they are, because they're ones like 'casting', 'skill', 'assist', and 'calling'—other words for Magic, Command, Support, and Summon. Also, every single Materia of that type has these in identical form—every one of my Supports has these three in exactly this way, and every one of my Summons has Felicia's three exactly that way."

"Ah," Genesis nodded thoughtfully. "I'll run a check on mine and see what my results are, but on the assumption you're right, that could very well be the set we need to change. Also, if it's true every one of the arrays in Materia of that type is identical, that becomes one of the _easiest_ things we need to do, because we'd be turning them all into Independent Materia—and all Independent Materia have the same pattern without exception, so..."

"Don't assume that, though," Eden said with an intent frown at the three. "I'm still comparing Materia types, but there may be more arrays involved in forming the type of Materia than just these three, and those could be the ones where the majority of changes from one Materia shard to the next come into play."

"There's that, but on the other hand, if we're already complicating things by making it into a seven-point array, would it still be able to function with the level of complexity you're implying?" the red haired man asked, head tipped to the side.

Golden eyes met his glowing blue as the teen asked, "Do you have _any idea_ how complex an array can be made before it stops functioning?" The words were soft and made the older man and Zack both blink in surprise. "A single array, if made on a large enough scale, can create an other-space, a pocket of space and time cut off from the world we live in. It can slaughter an entire population to turn a single being into something akin to a God—can you even _begin_ to imagine the complexity of an array like that? And that's using a _single array_. If you start adding in sub-arrays, each capable of being as complex as a single array, and attach a soul to that...Just how complex do you think that can become? Because let me tell you—there _is no limit_ to how complex an array can be before it doesn't function anymore. Too little complexity destabilizes it or prevents functionality with only a very few exceptions, but too much—there's no such thing."

Two pairs of glowing blue eyes widened at the words, and Genesis released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Then I guess you're right and it's too soon to decide those three arrays are the only things we need to worry about. Though..." The man paused for a moment as he let a thought form in his mind, then said, "Three and seven are both power numbers, strong ones. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say both would be used in one complex array. On the other hand, if it's not actually three, it would probably have to be seven, wouldn't it? Unless there are other power numbers you know—literal power numbers, not the most common ones."

"Three and seven are uncommon in our arrays, but we never particularly allocated 'power' to them, just a—I guess balance or energy format? But many numbers won't function in a seven-point array, so we'd be pretty limited in compatible numbers," Eden mused. "So you're probably right in saying any of the numbers we'll be using will be threes and sevens, possibly with multiples of those in a few aspects."

"And none of this freaks you two out and makes you want to run away and never touch arrays or Materia again?" Zack asked incredulously.

"It's just data," both of the other two answered at the same moment, making the black haired teen stare at them in amazement as they looked at each other in momentary surprise, then chuckled.

"What happened to Leviathan, by the way?" Eden asked the black haired teen suddenly.

Zack dug in his pocket and withdrew two red orbs which he offered to Eden, then said, "As soon as we finished with our meeting with the Director, Angeal got the original from me and sent it back to Wutai. The Emperor should be getting it soon, but I had time to produce three of those in the meantime because Angeal let me keep the first one I produced. Er—Yufi has one because she stole it from me, and Illis spanked her, but I felt bad about it, so I told her she could keep it as long as she promised not to steal again. If she steals again, Illis will take it from her and give it back to me or to you. I sort of think Illis only agreed to that because Yufi is the Princess of Wutai—Leviathan actually sort of belongs to her by birthright."

"Fair enough," the Turk agreed as he grinned, then handed the incomplete one back to a startled Zack. "Produce a few more before you give it back to me. I think we might want to start producing some reserve Materia people can use in emergencies. Hold on and I'll give you some of my other ones so you can make copies tonight." With that, he got up to find his bracers and weapons, then pulled out Odin, Carbuncle, and Sylph, and was about to pull Alexander free when Genesis stopped him.

The older man pulled Phoenix off his bracer and Bahamut from his pocket, then offered both of those to Zack. "Take those two as well and make copies," Genesis told the black haired teen. "I'll be back tomorrow to retrieve my originals, and Eden can take the ones you produce."

"Okay," Zack agreed, taking the batch of Summon Materia and going to the living room to put the tray down and lay out the new Materia he had to Master. "Eden, do you want more than one spare of any of these?" he called as he sat.

"Give me an extra of Carbuncle so I can give it to Rufus," the blond called back.

Both Zack and Genesis snorted at the request, but the black haired teen replied, "Will do!"

With him out of the room, Ed looked at the red haired man and asked, "Are we done with the arrays for now?"

"Yes, for the moment," Genesis agreed with a small smile.

"Good...Thank you," the blond said with an answering small smile.

They kept talking about more general things until the older man got a call asking him to meet someone elsewhere, then he left.

FoW

The rest of that day and the next passed quietly, mainly with people visiting Eden or him heading to the library next door to his room for more reading material. On the first of those days, Zack went with him, but he was left to move around on his own the next day, or with company he chose. Balto and Rude both also visited him for heart-to-hearts as long as or longer than the one he'd had with Genesis, and they helped talk him through some of the things eating at him. He felt more settled by the time he had to meet Tseng, and had things for his mind to work on in the meantime.

Over those two days, all their kids, Cait Sith (one of Reeve's non-hedonist ones), Rufus, several of the Turks (including but not limited to Reno, Cissnei, Emma, and Ruluf), and Sephiroth and Angeal had all visited him. What puzzled him was why Tseng hadn't visited him, when even Felicia had managed to find time to stop in for a visit to make sure he was doing better.

Finally, it was supper of the next day, and his meeting with Tseng was set for after that, so he took his time eating as he exasperatedly allowed Reno to sit with his arm around his shoulders while the red haired Turk babbled about everything under the sun. Mainly, he had to put up with the other man's arm because he couldn't move it, just like he hadn't been able to the day they'd arrived in Corel in the chopper. It was annoying, but what was even more annoying was when Reno managed to coax him into responding to all his babble.

"Will you stop that, Reno?" Eden finally asked in annoyance. "I'd really like to finish eating _before_ my meeting, and I can't do that with you talking a mile a minute and trying to get me to answer you!"

After a moment of surprised blinking, the older teen burst out laughing and rested his forehead on the blond's shoulder as he said in amusement, "Don't sweat it, yo! Tseng didn't give ya an actual time to meet him, so you don't have ta rush!"

When the blond stared at him without comprehension, the red haired man pulled out his PHS and opened it, going to some sort of schedule with the Shin-Ra logo on it, then showing him the scheduled times for 'the evening meal'. If the data in the provided grid was true, Eden didn't actually have to report to Tseng until eight in the evening, so slowly closed his eyes and sighed—and left Reno's arm around his shoulders.

What was with him, anyway?

 **Notes:**

(1) I would anticipate Felicia telling Shears and Zack caving and telling Angeal, leaving the possibility of Sephiroth and Genesis finding out that Eden's from another world. I don't especially think the SOLDIERs would care, mainly because they're rather 'otherworldly' themselves with Jenova's genes, and as long as Felicia doesn't especially care, Shears probably won't, either. I doubt anyone outside them will know unless it comes up after they get to Spira.

(2/SH) In this version, Genesis got a whole lot less done than in SH because he was busy both with his new 10-year-old charge and worrying about Eden after his breakdown. In SH, he spent most of his time after retrieving Al & Co. doing nothing in particular while waiting around for Mustang & Co. to get there, so worked on this—time he doesn't have in Fates of Worlds.


	8. 06-Dire Situation

**A/N:** This discussion happens similarly in Salvation's Hands (different intro and order, though), so for people reading both, don't be surprised.

Dire Situation

It was quite a bit later than he'd expected it would be by the time Reno let go of him and he could go up to the Turks' offices to see Tseng—it was actually nearly nine thirty at night, and he wondered if Tseng would even still be there. As it turned out, not only Tseng but some of the other Turks were working really late that night. When he got to the man's office, waving at Freyra, Emma, and Ruluf on the way, he shut the door and faced the Wutain to say, "You didn't check up on me at all. You didn't even _call_. Everyone _else_ did."

After a momentarily startled silence, Tseng said, "I—seem to—over-react to things that happen to you. It was very difficult for me to maintain neutrality last time I saw you, so there was no sense in provoking anything further. For your own peace of mind, it was better I didn't try to meet or interact with you again until I'd had time to calm down, and I'm normally fairly good at estimating how long it will take for me to do so. That's why I asked you to visit me tonight—I couldn't have dealt with you rationally before some point today, regardless. And unlike you, that's _around_ all the work I have to do as the Director of the Turks."

"...I see," Eden sighed, then dropped down in one of the seats across the desk from the Wutain man.

"Then, to begin, there's something it occurred to me to ask about the interaction between your world and ours," Tseng said. When the blond nodded, he asked, "Exactly how different are the two worlds? Did you adapt so well because they're so much alike, or is there actually a chance they exchange people fairly frequently?"

Shaking his head, the teen answered, "Other than a few things, like the existence of humans and some regular animals, and a few geological functions, they're as different as night and day. As for my adapting so well, I had Minerva's help with that, and my experience as a traveler for the last five years. Why?"

"...I think you'll have to clarify that for me a little more," Tseng said with a puzzled frown.

"This whole world is smaller than my home country. We had a small island nation on my world which is maybe about the size of this world by the time it takes to walk from town to town. What that means is that the quantity of Lifestream on both worlds is the same, but on a larger planet, it's spread much thinner so has much less influence and impact on the life flows than here, on a tiny world where that massive power becomes so compressed. We don't have pyreflies because the things on my world rot, they don't break down into energy, and to be honest, a planet this size can't actually sustain life _without_ that massive degree of energy. Technologically, we were using steam and had barely developed phones and electric lights, but our one advanced point was in our auto-mail—similar to your cybernetics—mainly through the knowledge we had of the arrays, what we called alchemy.

"Alchemy happens to be one of the functions of _this_ world, too. That similarity meant both had access to the Alchemist's Gate and to the being controlling it, but there are rules to the functionality. I truly believe humans have _no_ control over whether we can cross to some other world through the Gate or not, that the being controlling it does that. Even if someone tried to come after me, whether they got here or not would depend almost entirely on having the being's support and approval, and I can't say whether or not Truth—the being—would give it. He gave it to me in exchange for my brother's life, but it was a one-way trip and I don't think anyone else was supposed to be following me," Eden explained.

"Very well," the man answered thoughtfully. "Then, how is it random people are coming by the knowledge of the arrays?"

"I'm not entirely sure of the details, but I know the Materia operate on the same arrays, meaning those arrays are _also_ functions of _this_ world. The details may have been forgotten, but that doesn't mean people can't—glean knowledge from a few very highly skilled people repeatedly placing a huge amount of focus on the topic, something which previously never happened."

"What?" Tseng asked, his brow furrowing in puzzlement.

"I discussed this with Genesis, too, the same day I got back from Wutai. Tseng, physical things aren't the only ways knowledge transmits between people. The Lifestream is a kind of 'universal consciousness' which causes things some people learn or think to transfer to others by the information being imprinted in their minds without their say. From what I can tell, there are two ways it works. Either many of a sentient or semi-sentient race know something, so by default, it imprints in the majority of the rest, or a few people with very strong wills know something, so their knowledge imprints in a few people who are highly susceptible to it. Those two criminals in Wutai and the boy Genesis found here both came by their abilities with the arrays that way—the boy just got it a whole lot stronger because he was in closer proximity to Genesis and myself for a longer period of time—at least, that's my best guess. To date, Fuhito is the only one who we suspect _learned_ the skill from someone else."

"Well, at least that properly explains why Genesis wanted us to go looking for others like the boy and to set up a watch for them," the older Turk mused. "However, if we don't want Hojo to find out and start experimenting on random people, setting up a watch ourselves would be dangerous. On the other hand...It's possible I could commission Gaia's Refuge to take care of them on the premise that someone needs to keep track of them, but it's not in Shinra's interests to do so personally. In short, it's not actually our business, so handing it off to them becomes more feasible, especially if it means we can devote more of our own resources to things like tracking down Fuhito."

"That's certainly one way to play it," Eden agreed. "But damn, that guy's a slippery bugger. I've never known a human _that_ good at getting away from hunters like the Turks, and especially not from me. People have gotten away from me once or twice before, but not the number of times he has now, because he's up to four. And, I mean, who gets away from eight Summons when they're all attacking at once?"

"Good question," Tseng agreed. "But this is actually beginning to worry me and I have a feeling we're going to wind up having to use you as bait for him, and even then, it's a risk I'm hesitant to take with the vendetta he has for you."

"Why?" the teen frowned in puzzlement.

"He may just be able to get away again—and take you with him."

After Tseng's dire words, Eden sighed and met the older Turk's gaze as he said, "It's not the first time, either that I've been targeted or that I've been kidnapped. With my brother around, it was hard to do but far from impossible, and there were several times I could legitimately have died without that peculiar luck I seem to have. I guess my world's Lifestream liked me too or something, just by how many times I've gotten out of trouble just in the nick of time, before I'd have died. With Fuhito...maybe the only way to trap him and make him die is exactly by using me as bait. Especially if we can let it slip that I have the pieces of Zirconaide—all the ones not attached to Felicia."

"...Excuse me?" the man asked with a small frown.

"Fuhito had one of the fragments on him, so I find it hard to believe he didn't know what they were," the blond answered. "Maybe he doesn't know as much as I do, but on the premise of the personality fragment in the shard he had, he probably has the view that the being he would Summon would annihilate humanity. Before I talked to them, that's also exactly what they would have done. If you want him to be so obsessed with me that he actually gets careless enough you can kill him, that would be your best bet—to put everything you can in his face so he's no longer paying attention to anything _but_ me."

"Eden, you're putting yourself in danger to a degree no Turk could understand or accept by saying that," the Wutain informed him.

"Desperate situations call for desperate measures, and Tseng—I'm the one offering, you're not suggesting it," the younger Turk answered evenly. "There's a difference, a huge one. I know what I'm risking, and I don't like it, but Fuhito isn't someone we can keep messing around with—and I _know_ if he made off with me, the Turks and SOLDIER would tear apart the Planet to find me. I'm serious—make him completely obsessed with me. He's a tactician by nature, but that only works because he's cold and calculating. Obsession, especially of the level I want to push him to, will interfere with his tactical ability because he'll start seeing only certain things, the ones he _wants_ to in order to give him the advantage he's looking for. Also..." Eden paused there, not yet sure how to voice what he was thinking.

Tseng's head tipped to the side and he prompted, "Also what?"

Closing his eyes, the blond Turk began, "You know...one of the things Rude talked with me about was how I never let anyone protect me." His eyes opened as he looked up to meet the other Turk's dark eyes. "Then Genesis accused me of not trusting others or myself, and I realized that was exactly the same thing—I never let anyone protect me because I don't trust them to do so, even if my mind knows they will. And Tseng, that's a huge hurdle I have to overcome, or there will always be a wedge between me and everyone I know—the Turks, or Genesis, or the kids. By default, making myself bait for Fuhito in the way he would need would force me to trust everyone else to protect me—because I'm sure I won't be able to protect myself as soon as Fuhito focuses that strongly on me. And just to be clear on this, that actually scares me shitless, both having him so obsessed with me and having to rely on others to save me."

Leaning back in his chair to assess the words, the black haired Turk eyed the younger man while he thought about exactly what Eden—and what Edward—was saying. He was beginning to see a trend and to understand exactly what made the younger teen so skilled—he didn't break under pressure, not in the true sense of the words, he rallied his strength, pushed past his fears, and faced it all head-on. It was a trait many Turks had, and even many SOLDIERs had it, but blessed few had the sheer degree of it the small blond sitting across from him had.

Finally, Tseng relented with a soft sigh and asked, "Are you trying to send me to an early grave, Eden?"

"Not a chance. It's exactly _because_ it's me that you won't take any chances of letting anything go wrong," the younger teen answered.

The words caused a small smile to form on the older's face before he commented, "So your mind trusts me, and us, but your emotions don't. I can see why you'd want to bring them in line with each other. If we assume we're going to have to set you up as bait, the things which need to reach Fuhito's ears include your possession of the Zirconaide shards and your ability to use the arrays." As Eden's eyes widened, the man said, "You said yourself he's learned to use them, but probably doesn't know you've been doing any more than modifying Materia. If he becomes aware you're an expert with them, I daresay it would give us longer to act before he does you serious harm, for the fact that he would want your knowledge, and you have to be yourself to give it. I think we could feasibly go through Felicia to leak the information to him, and it would make her aware of the plan indirectly. The more eyes watching out for you, the better."

"Hey, that makes it sound like I'll get snatched when you're not ready!" Eden complained.

Linking his fingers in his lap, Tseng replied shrewdly, "By your track record to date, you probably will, Eden. Which is also why I'm so worried about this whole scenario. If anyone would be able to reach you, particularly without alerting Fuhito, it would be Reno, so we do have that contingency to put in place, assuming you have faith in him being able to get to you. It doesn't make the whole level of risk and the worry any better."

Eden stared in surprise, then looked away in thought as he recalled the time he'd spent with the older teen. Reno was pretty steady despite his energy, but he had a vicious streak and mostly didn't take things too seriously outside his work. If something triggered his vicious streak or he was working, he was entirely focused and a force to be reckoned with. All of those were points in favor of having him be the one to actually rescue Ed when the time came, and he didn't have any complaints about those points. His only issue was just how touchy-feely the man had proven he could be, but that was a minor point under the circumstances, and from what he could tell, while Reno was actively working, he kept his mind on said work.

Finally, he looked back at Tseng and said, "I don't have any reason to think he'll be unable, so I can go with that."

"Fine. Then, the first thing we have to do is coordinate your schedules, which will be easier once you're back on guard duty on Rufus. Your first day off will be the fifth day after tomorrow, when Rufus will have to attend a social affair and the President decided Sephiroth is to be his guard and escort for it. None of us had any say in that one, so you'll have from around noon one day to just after breakfast the next off. For our purposes, after the first noted day you have time off, every three days you'll get roughly that amount of time off with that timing unless you're told otherwise for a specific day. Unfortunately there are times where Rufus wants Reno, or Genesis, or Sephiroth to attend him when you're not able to."

"Yeah, so Reno might not always be available," the blond nodded. "Anything else?"

After a silence, the Wutain Turk said, "You _do_ realize if we go through with this, you're going to have to have a tracker on you like the one we gave to Genesis, yes?"

"I gathered that. Whether Fuhito will or won't guess is a question."

"We'll assume he'll look. His finding any would depend on where we put them, and he'd have to take the time to search for them, which would be longer again before he'd do you serious harm. Since we have as long to prepare as we do, we feasibly have time to hide them all on you so _you_ don't even know where they are. Of course, I can think of an exception to the time factor, but I'm hoping he won't think of it since the usual track record is that no one ever does. The only way to circumvent it would be to sew the tracker into your body somewhere. Going through with that would require Hojo's assistance, and I wouldn't be inclined to believe he'd do _only_ that to you."

"Neither would I. The next question then would be—how strongly do you believe I would actually need to have the tracker sewn into my body? Enough to risk Hojo, or was that really just you thinking out loud about the worst case scenario?"

"...I won't have a clear answer until we start getting some reports back about his behavior from Felicia's agent, but as things stand, I don't believe Hojo is worth risking."

"Okay, then you're probably going to be borrowing my clothes over the next few days while I'm with Rufus, right?"

"Whatever you don't take with you. When you get the chance to switch everything off, I want you to do a complete switch so all the items we couldn't put trackers in will be left for us to work with and everything on you then has trackers...Unfortunately, I still feel like I'm missing something about this situation."

"Er...I know what I wrote in my report, but I don't actually _know_ what happened when Fuhito escaped the Summons of my Limit Break. Did you get any report on that, or did anyone see how he got away?"

"Felicia told me to get in touch with Crescent Unit Captain Inagi to find out what he saw, because he was the only one with a clear view. In his report, he said something inky black and like a solid wisp of shadow held back the Summons from Fuhito, limiting the damage they were able to do to him, even though it obviously didn't block it completely. That doesn't mean anything in particular to me, but he actually called Fuhito a demon in his report. Since it has an obvious effect on his survival, is that what he's been doing all along?"

"...I don't know," the blond Turk sighed. "Well, yes, I do—most of it is his natural ability as a tactician, because he still managed to get away from me in Corel, but he definitely didn't have a shadow then, so all the 'shadow' does is keep him alive to escape if he makes a tactical error. All the rest of the time, he's doing it himself."

"And what is the shadow? You must have some kind of suspicion."

"...I think it's—you know, the two options which come to my mind are that it's either a fragment of the 'Gate' I came through or it's some kind of homunculus."

"...A fragment of what or a what?"

"The Gate has—some weird, black, shadowy hands that grab you and drag you in, push knowledge into you, and toss you back out. A homunculus is a created being which usually is 'shadow-ish' in its natural form and which can look like a human, is super-powered, and has its own soul."

"How do we tell the latter apart from the population?"

"You don't without forcing them to show their true power or form. All the ones I met had a fully human form with the ability to tap into their basic form as a homunculus, but they were definitely as sentient as any human. Normally, I'd say it wouldn't be possible for a human to suddenly have one attached to them, but...With the reintroduction of alchemy to the Planet and my experience with a very powerful homunculus creating weaker ones by embedding them in humans...It's actually possible. In terms of power, a homunculus is along the lines of a being like Jenova, and if an Omega could get here independently, any world which has access to an Alchemist's Gate could have random homunculi appearances because some reside in the space around the Gate. If it's true one is working with Fuhito, it's going to take an equally powerful being or everything we have to take him out, assuming we make sure he can't slip away again. Of course, most of that is true of him having part of the Gate itself attached to him, too."

"...So are we dealing with Fuhito or with—either other option rather than him?" Tseng asked apprehensively.

"That depends on how well Fuhito and 'it' get along, and which one it actually is. If it's a homunculus and Fuhito took it in willingly, both of them are participating equally in what they're doing, which is the more likely option by how little Fuhito's behavior has changed. If it's a fragment of the Gate, we have no idea what knowledge it has or is giving him, but that's really all it does besides deflect attacks—gives him some random knowledge. That would mean we're still dealing with him directly."

Pausing for a moment, the teen leaned forward and went on tersely, "Alchemically, that means Fuhito may be getting help from a very long-lived and intelligent being to improve his skills, or getting that data from a Gate fragment. He may not be, but it's likely he's getting at least some pointers from his new—buddy, because the arrays the criminals in Wutai were using were just too primitive for him to create the newest round of Ravens with. A truly functional array would normally easily take two or three _months_ to design, even with _my_ level of knowledge. Now, he has sheer carelessness on his side, and could have possibly created more Ravens in Corel than the ones I fought, but the ones in Wutai had to have been partially alchemically modified to have changed from the ones in Corel in only about three weeks. No matter how I look at it, some part of it had to've come from his new buddy, regardless of 'what' it is."

"I see," Tseng sighed, letting his eyes slide closed for a few moments as he thought. Finally, his eyes opened and he leaned back in his chair as he asked, "What kind of regenerative abilities does a homunculus or a fragment of the Gate have?"

"Er...For both, think of it like trying to kill Sephiroth with a sword. Unless you cut his head off, that's exceptionally difficult. Only, even cutting their head off doesn't guarantee you've beaten or killed it, because I'm pretty sure when I defeated 'Father', the only thing that happened was for him to be weakened and returned to the space around the Gate. If it was a fragment of the Gate, I don't think anything besides it being sent back to the Gate would happen regardless."

"I see...What purpose would either thing have for helping someone like him?"

Eden leaned back and stared up at the ceiling for a minute as he thought. Finally, he said, "Fuhito wants to wipe out all human beings basically just for the sake of wiping them out, so if he is indeed working with and housing a homunculus, it's one which actually wants to destroy life, but for what reason is questionable. If it's part of the Gate, I don't think the hands are sentient enough of their own accord to assess that, so they just—impart data like they were designed to do. The hands aren't 'helping' him in that sense if it's a fragment of the Gate we're dealing with." (1)

For a long moment, Tseng gazed at him in quiet assessment, then asked, "For what reason would a being more powerful than a human want to destroy us? We have no connection to or impact on them."

"Uh, Tseng...Why did Jenova want to destroy us again?"

The man was silent for a long moment before saying, "If your theory is correct, her reason was a retaliation in an attempt to protect herself, but in the process, she descended into insanity. Are you going to claim insanity in their defense?"

"No, though I'm pretty sure all sentient beings are lesser or greater degrees of insane anyway," Eden answered with a wry grin. "The longer beings like them live, the more likely they seem to be to fall into destructive forms of insanity. Some may have reasons like Jenova's, some may want power for the sake of having it—Hell, some may even just do it for the entertainment value and they see us as nothing more than pawns to play with. What I know is that Minerva doesn't want a being like Fuhito to destroy us, so ultimately, their reasons aren't in _our_ best interests, they're in theirs and _only_ theirs. Minerva herself is probably the only real exception to the trend I'm aware of."

With a nod, the older Turk had to admit, "I suppose you have a point. Knowing the reason would be helpful in predicting their moves if it's a homunculus, but it's not necessary as long as we know the goal. Fuhito has made his goal abundantly clear, and has given us enough indications of how far he'll go to get it, which covers us for both eventualities. That leaves only the question of whether or not we can divert his attention so strongly to you. If he's already got someone showing him how to use alchemy, will that entice him to you?"

"Yes. I told you, he doesn't 'know' alchemy, he was handed a ready-made array someone else made. That's probably why he got involved with those two criminals in Wutai—in the hopes of actually learning how to use the arrays. Except, he found they pretty much didn't know anything other than a few basics and didn't even fully understand those, so he'd want someone who _did_ know. Which also implies the thing attached to him either doesn't have all the details or isn't inclined to share them, nor is the being currently stopping him from trying to find out."

After a pause, the Wutain man said, "Very well, we'll start preparing. Go get some rest so you can return to guard duty tomorrow."

"Right," Eden agreed, rising and turning to go. He then stopped and commented, "Maybe that's why Minerva said she wasn't sure I'd be able to save the world."

"What?" Tseng asked in surprised.

"When I visited Aeris, she told me the Lifestream had informed her things had been going in a direction she wasn't sure I'd be able to fix, not even with everyone's help."

"...Eden, are you going to give up because of that?"

"No. But depending on what we're actually dealing with, I can understand how she'd be so worried about our chances. In the end, it's going to come down to Fuhito, Hojo, Heidegger, and the President, I think...whether we succeed or fail will be in their hands. If we can take them out before then, great, but, well...We'll see."

The blond Turk then walked out, leaving the older man to sit and stare blankly at the papers on his desk for awhile, pondering the words.

 **Notes:**

(1) Keep in mind that these are just Ed's best guesses, not necessarily what they're actually dealing with.


	9. 07-Overview

**A/N:** Part of this is a recap since Rufus has never actually heard all this before, but there's also some new data and new questions! For Salvation's Hands readers, this will show up later (same number of in-story days, but more chapters). A few aspects will be different, too, by the inclusion of more people.

Overview

The next morning, when Eden walked into the Vice President's office, which Rufus was using despite the title still being unofficial, Reno gave him a wave and left the room as the older blond turned to face him. Eden couldn't hold back a small smile as the older blond, who stood at the window and facing him, used one hand to motion him to sit. The Turk moved over to the chair across the desk from the older blond and dropped his overnight bag at his feet as Rufus also sat.

The two regarded one another quietly for a minute, then the President's son asked, "How are you recovering?"

"Fine, thanks. I'm pretty much back to normal now." the younger of the pair answered, feeling warm at the realization that Rufus really had it in him to be able to care about others.

"That's good to know. So, does this mean you'll be around for awhile now, Eden?"

"I sure hope so," the younger teen replied dryly. "I can't promise things will go as planned because we're starting another operation as of now, but I'm assigned here until further notice, and don't really have to be called away for anything in the meantime."

"Good," the eighteen-year-old said with a faint smile. "I've given one of the factories I had planned for the Slums to Felicia to give Gaia's Refuge a place to turn into a science testing lab, as well as a production facility for the energy source they eventually decide on. Reeve has also turned a few of his projects over to her care, one of those his general population watch—they now have a Cait Sith unit for each of their leaders. My _father_ would be suspicious of me having a Cait Sith at this point, so Reeve's office doesn't plan to provide me with such a unit until they manage to finish the project they were working on for you."

After a short pause, he went on quickly, "The redesigns of the Reactors have also been progressing well in most areas, from all nine here in Midgar to ones as far away as Rocket Town and Gongaga. The one by Corel will now be one of Reeve's new designs completely." Rufus then paused again for a minute before demanding, "Tell me what all your plans are, Eden."

"Which plans?" the sixteen-year-old asked with a blink.

"The ones which fall under your 'save-the-world crusade'," the older blond replied.

"Well, the Reactor redesigns and Gaia's Refuge's plans have taken care of two of the things I was worried about, and what you're doing here is also helping on one of those by reducing the number of people living in misery," the Turk said. Rufus nodded, so he went on, "I know what you're doing doesn't seem like much, but you really do need to do it, and hopefully help teach society a better way to live in the process. That's a long-term project, though, and will probably take several generations to truly change. Also, it's made harder by the fact that we have to figure out exactly _how_ to change society so the kind of situation we're in now won't be repeated, but that would mean changing the premise of society, and tell me—how many ways can you think of to make true change in a society based on money and greed?"

"There should be many ways, like keeping people employed," Rufus replied.

"That's a great short-term fix, but it only works as long as prices for goods don't increase and people let go of enough of their greed to give everyone work for a decent wage. As long as you've got very wealthy people and very poor people, you're going to have a problem, and not everyone is capable of working, either—no work, no money, no food, clothing, and shelter. Also, as long as there are positions of power some people have over others—most of those tied in to either wealth or brute force—there's going to be a repeat of all the same problems. It's not something that can be fixed with patch jobs and literally takes figuring out a whole new system, which in turn means everyone has to be willing to accept changes like negation of wealth and power. And Rufus, even though I know all that is needed, I have no clue how to _do_ it, and I have doubts about people being _able_ to give up their desire to one-up others, even you."

"Even me?"

"Could you handle being just the same as the child living in the Slums? Could you handle losing your title, your power, your wealth?"

For a long time, Rufus was silent as he pondered the words, then asked shrewdly, "Could _you_ handle losing the power you claim being a Turk gives you?"

With a sigh, Ed leaned back in his seat and stared at the ceiling as he answered, "It would depend on the method, honestly. If you were going to take away my ability to protect people or do my research, I'd have huge issues with that. What system would allow those kinds of things to remain intact while bringing everyone to an equal position, all in a functioning society where everyone could live happily?"

"Eden, by default, _any_ 'society' needs some kind of rules or guidelines, otherwise it would become acceptable for people like Hojo to live in them, to do what makes them happy—torture people." Ed's eyes went back to Rufus in alarm, so the other blond said, "No, there _needs_ to be some form of rules for a 'society' to exist, but by default, that will make anyone inclined to harm others very _un_ happy. Policing forces like the Turks and SOLDIER will still be needed, but not necessarily in the format they currently are. As to the rest, I have no more idea currently than _you_ do. What other plans have you got?"

"There's restoring Zirconaide without killing Felicia in the process, something Genesis and I have been slowly working on as we could, both independently and together. We've found some of the key factors in doing what we need to do, at least three of them, but we need the _time_ to be able to sit down and work on it more thoroughly and steadily, something we just don't have as things stand. Our required work in the Turks and SOLDIER is our biggest obstacle, and we can't actually put those tasks off, either—you still need a guard and SOLDIERs still have to go hunting monsters and terrorists and so on. What we know are three of the key arrays we'll have to change, and that we're most likely working with a base seven-point array. Repairing a broken soul isn't easy to do."

"Even though it may not be enough, I could help you gain some of the time you need by having you both act as my guards for a day every now and then. Could anyone else be given the data to work on it in your place?"

"It requires knowledge of the arrays we're using—and people at large just don't have that. Rufus, unless we took _months_ , even _years_ , to teach someone else what we know, there isn't anyone else who can work on this. The same is true of both of my other plans, but it may be possible to get some input from others on the more abstract parts of those."

"Very well. Your other two plans?"

"One is to return energy to the Lifestream."

"Is that even possible?"

"Apparently, that's what Materia are actually _for_ —they're the Planet's back-up batteries, and grow and reproduce through energy not tied to the Lifestream. People are composed of Lifestream energy, but we also _produce_ an energy in addition to that which is energy that never belonged to the Lifestream. Materia grows by draining that other energy from us, not by pulling on Lifestream energy. Materia won't start to deteriorate until they've been Mastered, then take thousands of years to break down from that point. In the natural cycle of life, that would be more than sufficient for the world to restore its lost energy over time, but the Reactors have taken more than the Lifestream can afford to give in a very short time—by default, that means we need to find a way to return the Materia to the Lifestream much sooner."

"How will that work when we have to take years to Master one Materia shard?"

"Zack can Master most in two hours or less, and do that several times over the course of the day—without it affecting his daytime energy level."

"...First Fair generates so much energy?" At the constipated expression on Rufus' face, Eden had to chuckle.

"He does," the Turk agreed. "And there are probably others like him in the world, just not many. We need to find them so they can help us produce huge numbers of Materia to be returned to the Planet. Of course, for that to be valid, we need that method of breaking them down so they _can_ go back to it, and we don't have that—I need to be able to study the whole system to figure out how, and without time to do so, finding it will be really hard."

"What do you mean, you need to study the whole system? Don't you just need to study the breakdown of Mastered Materia?"

"It happens too slowly to study, Rufus. We don't _have_ six thousand years to watch them and note minute changes which may be indicating deterioration, we have to do this _now_ , in the next few years. That means the only feasible method is to study their formation and the processes they go through in said formation so we can try reversing them. That also takes time, but not nearly as much as observing natural deterioration."

"Eden, all of that is a simple scientific study you could hand to the Science Department, and my father would likely even approve it openly because it would give more energy to the Planet for him to take with his Reactors. It doesn't require your knowledge of the arrays," the older blond answered in a dry tone.

At first, the younger of the pair opened his mouth to protest, then shut his mouth and pondered the question for a few minutes, wondering why he was so hesitant to pass the project on to someone else. He couldn't appear to disregard the possibility, though, so he compromised in his wording to say, "I admit, I'm possessive of my work, but you're right and I should hand that off, because it actually _can_ be. The question is, if I give it to the Science Department, will they do right by it without turning it into a sick human experiment? With Hojo still in power there..."

"He's done the experiments he intended to do with Materia already, which didn't involve breaking them back down into raw Lifestream energy. Though, I would let them finish modifying the Reactors and getting the new one partly built before offering that to the department. A couple weeks more should be sufficient time."

The blond sixteen-year-old paused to assess the words thoughtfully, then slowly nodded and said, "I don't think I want to be linked directly to it. Who would you suggest I get to act as my middle-man?"

"If you give me the appropriate data, I could do so."

"You aren't a scientist, so you'd have a hard time asking the right questions or understanding what they're talking about."

"There are ways around that, such as requesting the data to go through and respond to at a later date, giving us both time to go over it.

"...I'll think about it. Like you said, I have a couple more weeks."

"Very well. And your last plan?"

"To use some of the Materia shards to create Fusion Materia."

"The Science and Weapon Departments have already done that."

"Primitively due to lack of knowledge and understanding of the arrays."

"Meaning what?"

"They can only combine two Materia, such as Lightning and Elemental for an automatic Bolt Blade. Those are unstable at best and only allow access to one form of Bolt—it can't be manipulated. It's being done with a huge lack of precision and a lot of guess-work, not through any kind of scientific study or method. In short, they have no idea what they're doing or how to set up a feasible study on it, so it's all a random shot in the dark, and they don't seem to care to find ways to make a proper study of it."

"And yours differs how?"

"I plan on setting up a proper study of what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, what works, what doesn't work, and what changes need to be made for functionality. What I plan on doing is combining several shards into one—for example, the four elements—so all of the arrays—spells—in each can be accessed through one shard like normal. What I plan on creating is a Bolt Blade which can be used that way or allow its user to cast any desired level of Bolt. All of that takes direct knowledge of alchemy and the arrays and time to set up the experiments as well as setting up the results in a comprehensive study which will be understandable and repeatable, including all the adjustments which need to be manually made in the process. In other words, it requires intimate understanding of scientific method, which _Genesis_ knows more about and has an easier time following than the _scientists_ here seem to. Hell, _Sephiroth_ and _Tseng_ have a better grasp of it than the scientists."

"Well, at least Materia is easy to come by..."

"I may not be able to use just any kind of Materia, though."

"...Any kind?"

"It may need to be Mastered due to stability issues."

"I see. And you really can't just give your information to someone else to do the work for you?"

"In this case, no. Like I said before, it takes too long to learn even what Genesis knows about it. Even if I taught the doctors in the Science Department, not only do I run the risk of having Hojo turn it into a sick human experiment—Genesis was also worried about that—but all the same people I don't want knowing about it will find out. As for why I don't hand it to Felicia—they're already doing something much more important and I'd rather not have them take on more with what they're already doing."

"May I assume 'alchemy' is the name for direct manipulation of the arrays?"

"Yes. And for the scientific and mathematical study and development of them."

"How much do you suppose you could do towards either project—Zirconaide or the Fusion Materia—by yourself if you were to work on that for the day while I'm doing my own paperwork?"

"I really need Genesis' help to do more work on Zirconaide, but I could actually get a good start towards the Fusion Materia premise and initial experimental details. That assumes you'll behave yourself, though, and stay right here without needing to interrupt me. Once I start working, I'll just keep going until—well, I'll have to be forcibly stopped even to remember to eat."

Rufus' brow rose, but he said, "Eden, I had already scheduled our meals to be brought here because I have too much paperwork to catch up on. It will easily be eight or nine this evening before I've finished what I need to do, and I can't afford to leave until I've done it all."

The Turk eyed him for a long moment before relenting with a small smile, "If that's the case, I'll gladly use the time to work on it. Just make sure I've at least acknowledged the food when it gets here or I probably won't eat it."

The older blond nodded and agreed, "I can do that. My work isn't so intensive I'll have to give so much attention to it. Of course, that will also mean I'll be giving you a run for your money when we leave here this evening."

"...You're going to go out on the town after spending so long with paperwork?" Eden asked in horror.

Rufus gave him an amused look and informed him, "I rather find it rejuvenating to go out on the town after doing so much paperwork."

"Right..." the younger teen sighed. He then gazed at the older teen for a moment before asking, "Do you have Materia on you?"

"...I have a few slotted ones, but I was never meant to be a combatant, and my skill with a gun bothers my father severely," Rufus answered in puzzlement.

"Show me," the younger teen replied, meeting the other blond's eyes evenly.

After a pause, the eighteen-year-old pulled out what he had—three of them only, all Mastered, Restore, Heal, and Seal.

"That's all?" Eden sneered. "What, does your father _want_ you to die?" He then gave his head a shake and said, "Never mind," and looked up to meet Rufus' shocked gaze. "I agree you're a non-combatant, but that doesn't mean you don't need things to buy you time to escape or to protect yourself. Right now, I can help you with two things, one I had planned on giving you anyway, but the other is just a spare I have kicking around." He then drew out the spare Mirage he had and the extra Mastered Carbuncle he'd gotten Zack to produce.

When Rufus took the red Materia shard, his eyes widened and he asked, "What is this?"

"It's a Summon I accidentally made from the Mako in Shelke's body. Its main function is to generate protective shields—shields strong enough to spare you a blow or two, even from Fuhito's Ravens, tested and proven. Keep it slotted, but _don't_ go showing it off to anyone," Eden answered in reply. "And Mirage, even with just Multi on it, will definitely help you survive longer by making it hard for an attacker to target you. In all honesty, you should have Transform, Time, Mystify, Exit, Destruct, Float, and Contain on you as well, and I'd only give you Contain because casting most of those has a strong likelihood of causing an effect—like Break causing petrification—as well. Maybe you won't want to use all of those because it'll cause you too many deficiencies, but Carbuncle's barriers will limit the damage to you regardless, and unlike most Summons, it isn't very costly in energy."

For a long minute, Rufus was silent, then he asked, "Is there a way to gain those effects without needing all of those actively slotted?"

Leaning back to think for a minute, the Turk debated any alternatives, then met his charge's eyes again to say, "Enemy Skill would sufficiently cover many of them, assuming you were willing to go on a world-wide monster hunt to collect the skills on it, and there's also Full Cure. If you had a fully developed Enemy Skill and a Full Cure at second level or Mastered, I'd be likely to have you use those two with Carbuncle, Float, Exit, Mirage, and Destruct. (1)

"The problem is first in getting an Enemy Skill Materia because they're very rare, then in _gathering_ the skills when almost half of them come from the northern continent—Bone Village and right up through to the Northern Crater. From the research I did, most of those skills are well-worth having, but the danger in trying to get them is huge. I wouldn't _want_ to go there alone, especially with a non-combatant to protect, but I know Genesis has an Enemy Skill which probably isn't complete unless he managed to get sent to Icicle Inn for something and had spare time to go Skill hunting."

"Where else are there 'Skills' to acquire?"

"Everywhere from the wastes outside Midgar to Wutai—where you can now go safely, especially if you're with me. I didn't have time to go exploring there because I was working on two cases and babysitting Yufi at the same time, and I couldn't even make it to the Materia Mine to see what I could find there."

"In other words, if I want to go Enemy Skill hunting, you'll gladly come along, but only if I correctly establish my trek as an assigned mission for the Turks and SOLDIER. I would likely wind up with at least one more Turk and one or two SOLDIERs that way."

"Most likely. And that's assuming Tseng is willing to send me haring off on a trip like that given Fuhito's vendetta against me. You may have to make do with Reno, Genesis, and others."

"I would hardly be setting up a charted course for anyone but Tseng to know," Rufus said in amusement. "The reason would be mainly because we would be 'exploring at my whim'. There are many places I've wanted to see or visit and have never had the opportunity, so if I make those arrangements now, that would be useful to me. Are there Turks in particular you would like to have accompany us if Tseng determines we need more than you and Genesis?"

"Any of—well, any of the Turks, since they're all pretty powerful and skilled. If any also have an Enemy Skill they'd like to develop, Tseng would probably give them priority to go on a trip for that reason. Otherwise, you could get some of Gaia's Refuge's people to help out, too," Eden offered. "But you'll have to see how it works out when you present your case to Tseng and Lazard."

With a nod, then a sigh, Rufus said, "Well, I suppose it would be best if we get to work on our respective paperwork, then."

For a moment, the Turk paused, then asked, "So, paper? Also, do you think it will be wise for us both to use your desk?"

"Absolutely not," the President's son replied dryly, then pointed at the door to the side of the room which was for office supply storage. "There should be plenty of paper and a temporary desk in there."

Soon after, Eden was sitting at the desk he'd moved into the main office with over a dozen sheets of paper spread out around him as he worked on laying out his purpose, his plan, and his scientific method. His bag sat beside him at the new chair which went with the spare desk, and he was working so intently Rufus had to pull his pen from his hand to make him acknowledge the meals. So the day progressed with little more than paperwork until just as late as the older teen had figured, and Eden just gave a heart-felt sigh as they left the building.

It didn't take long for Rufus to choose a bar in Sector 8 called the Behemoth's Den (rather than the usual Goblins Bar, where nearly all the other night life was), where he settled in one of the bar stools and ordered a very strong drink that made Eden sigh again. As the blond Turk sat beside his charge, the older teen said, "You could leave."

"Stop it, Rufus," Eden replied as several people stared at the pair.

"Well, then, at least don't sit so close, otherwise I won't even be able to get any decent company," Rufus ordered. "Anyway, I don't think you'd like to see me pawing a woman while sitting right beside you."

With an irritated noise Rufus probably didn't hear above the din and music, the Turk moved to the end of the bar and asked for some water, then found a shadowed place to stand where he could keep an eye on the older blond from. It was a good thing his previous training had been to keep his mind on the task at hand so he refrained from drinking anything alcoholic—though he was sorely tempted as he saw Rufus flirting with a random woman. It looked like nothing too out of the ordinary was going to happen that night, though, so he supposed he should be thankful.

Until Rufus went down the hall to the bathroom and three men 'conveniently' followed, and while it wasn't uncommon for more than one man to head in the direction of the washroom around the same time, it was usually staggered. Usually, Eden probably wouldn't have noticed them, but something just seemed off to him, so he put his almost empty glass of water on the nearest table and headed after the three men and Rufus. If they had been from Gaia's Refuge, he wouldn't have worried, but they weren't—they looked more like office workers down on their luck.

As soon as he walked into the bathroom to see Rufus surrounded, he knew he'd been right to worry.

"Unhand me!" the older blond glared at the three men surrounding him.

"Or what, you'll call daddy to take care of us?" one asked with a sneer. "Go ahead and call him—you can tell him he'll have to give up a cool billion to get you back unharmed."

"Is idiocy contagious or something?" Eden asked from the doorway, brow raised.

The three men turned to him and one gasped, "A Turk! Get him!"

A sigh and three hard punches later, Eden had laid the three flat and looked up at Rufus to ask above the sounds of the men's moans and groans, "Did they hurt you?"

"The one on the right bruised my arm, but it was nothing more serious," Rufus replied, gaze faintly curious.

"In other words, they're getting away with their lives this time," the blond Turk said, then looked down at the three. "You hear that? Only because you didn't hurt my charge, you're going to get another chance to get an honest job. Lay a hand on him again and I won't be so nice." His gaze moved back to Rufus to ask, "And you thought you didn't need a guard?"

That time, it was Rufus who gave a heart-felt sigh, then said, "Let's go home, then, Eden."

They quickly left the bar and soon after arrived at the manor where the Shinras lived, where Dark Nation greeted Eden back by balancing on his hind legs and bracing his paws on the Turk's shoulders to lick his face, much to Rufus' amusement.

 **Notes:**

 **(Sorry, it's pretty long this time! Obviously, no one has to read my reasoning unless they want to.)**

(1) This was the final shortest list I came up with for Rufus, based on the fact that he's not supposed to be trying to fight, only to keep himself alive, and a whole lot of Enemy Skills are combat-oriented, so with those, he'll have lots of things to fight with, too. Ed's his guard, and he doesn't do a half-assed job, so for his charge to be protected, he needs to give him tools with which to keep himself alive in a pinch.

Bad Breath causes nearly every status effect in random combinations (I have _always_ hated Malboros because of this skill, in _every_ Final Fantasy game!), so that takes care of pretty much all the status effect Materia. Carbuncle covers all forms of shielding, and this Carbuncle will also add some status effects like Haste (similar to how Big Guard works), and Full Cure the way I've modified it takes care of health regeneration and status healing (Enemy Skill does some of this, too). That leaves Float, Mirage, Exit, and Destruct not being covered, and two of those are Materia I created for this story. Also, Rufus can't have too many of them on him because he's a normal person with limited energy, so this was the best compromise to limit the number and still give him a good range to work with based on circumstance.

I debated having Ed offer him a Final Attack with the list, but he's not actually thinking in that vein at this point in time, so it'll take him awhile to realize it might be prudent for Rufus to have it. Also, he still mainly views Rufus as a spoiled brat who needs a disciplinarian, so certain things wouldn't necessarily be 'worth it' to provide at the moment. Rufus has improved in his world view since Ed became his guard (quite a bit, actually), but he's still predominantly cold and self-serving. His reason for helping Ed on his crusade isn't 'to save the world' or 'to save the people', it's 'to save himself, he has to save the world/people'. I don't see Ed giving him Final Attack while he's in that mindset. Carbuncle is quite enough. Also, Rufus will largely have people around him who have Revives or Phoenixes to revive him with.

To offset this, however, Ed is actually intrinsically selfish himself, but he tends to also want what's best for people because it's what's best for them. At the point when Rufus can use both the selfish and the altruistic reasons for what he's doing (much like Ed does, himself), he'll be more than happy to give him Final Attack and Revive. There's nothing wrong with a certain amount of selfishness—some 'selfishness' is actually necessary so people don't hurt/overwork themselves—but if the selfishness goes as far as hurting others, it's gone too far, and Rufus still doesn't actually give a damn if he hurts people. Ed, on the other hand, doesn't WANT to hurt others in the process of anything he's doing, selfish or not, and it devastated him to realize his selfish desire to bring his mother back to life cost Al his body.

If you don't believe Ed is intrinsically selfish—well, actually, my major justifications for his selfishness are in Salvation's Hands in a discussion he has with Winry. I don't know if they'll come up here, but I will say almost every action Ed took up until he realized what he did to Al (that is, shortly after he put Al's soul in the suit of armor at 10-11), and even how he handled 'Father' (at 16), was intrinsically entirely selfish. If you want clarification on that and **aren't following Salvation's Hands** , PM me and I'll send you the specific discussion Ed and Winry have, rather than the whole chapter.


	10. 08-Travel Plans

**A/N:** For Salvation's Hands readers: from this point forward (until the switch to Spira, anyway), events in Fates of Worlds are spoilers for events to come in SH, but many outcomes will be different—so don't be surprised to eventually get a sense of déja vu when reading SH.

Travel Plans

Around mid-morning on the day of the dinner party, Tseng, Rude, and Cissnei were in the office working on some mission details when the door opened and a familiar, haughty voice said, "Tseng, I need you to issue me a firearm since my— _guard_ —won't be with me tonight."

Tseng looked over at the door to see Rufus and Eden there. "You think General Sephiroth doesn't have the skill to protect you?" the Wutain Turk asked with a raised brow.

"He has no grasp of actual 'guard duty'," the older blond replied. "He'll walk away from me to pursue an enemy without having a means to attack an enemy at a distance."

"I still think you're underestimating him," Eden put in from beside the older blond, gaze amused.

"So you've said," Rufus agreed irritably. "I still would feel more secure with a firearm if you aren't allowed to attend to me then, Eden."

"Do you have the vest we gave you?" Tseng asked curiously, carefully hiding his amusement at Rufus' obvious attachment to Eden. It may have been platonic, but Rufus didn't let many people in, and Tseng and Eden—the younger blond especially—were two of less than five people Rufus was 'close' to.

"Of course," the President's son almost sneered. "I obviously can't walk around without it of late."

When Tseng raised a brow at the blond Turk, Eden lifted his shoulders in a shrug and said, "Nearly every time he's left the Shinra building or his home since I was reassigned to him, someone has either tried to kill him or kidnap him. A couple of those were obviously random, but a few others feel like part of a very real danger, and it got so bad that I had to start killing them. We actually made it here without incident today after the seven I killed last night. If this keeps up, it may really be the best idea for us to leave Midgar for awhile."

Tseng sighed, then said, "I'm going to need reports on those attacks, Eden."

"I'll do up some reports while Rufus is doing paperwork," Eden said, his expression sour. "But every time I beat them, the more dangerous they become in their next attempt."

"We'll start looking into it as soon as we have your reports." The Turk then faced Rufus and said, "Cissnei can take you to get a firearm for the evening. Eden can stay here while you're in her care, since I have some papers to give him."

With a nod, Rufus left with Cissnei, and Tseng headed towards his office. A moment later, Rude's hand landed on Eden's head and the blond closed his eyes as he breathed deeply.

"We don't get to visit nearly often enough when we're in Midgar, you know," Eden commented after a moment, turning to look up at Rude.

"We don't. For now."

"You think that will change?"

"It goes on and off."

"I see. That's good to know."

Tseng returned to the room just then and eyed the pair for a moment before sighing and saying, "As adorable as that is, I can't promise you any sort of time to visit with friends and—family—until we've dealt with Fuhito." He approached as Eden faced him with a glare and Rude dropped his hand, expression amused. "Here are the forms you'll need to fill out with your reports—these are the ones Heidegger and President Shinra will see—but we'll be taking our cues and clues from your detailed reports. I'll leave it to you to decide how much to put in those, but if you actually _want_ to go on that trip you mentioned, you're probably better off downplaying the incidences for these."

"Okay," Eden agreed as Rufus and Cissnei returned. The younger blond took the papers from Tseng and left with the older blond to return to the Vice President's office.

FoW

As for the dinner party, its start time had been registered for six, but people arrived anytime between five-thirty and six-thirty, the earliest arrivals being the President and his son—which, of course, included Sephiroth. Both Rufus and Sephiroth were dressed in their usual clothing, if slightly more refined—Sephiroth had a full, closed shirt under his long coat and Rufus wore a black, button-up blouse with a white tie under his—while most of the other attendees were in vari-colored suits or cocktail dresses. They had prepared for a night of irritation and boredom. And so it turned out to be, though Reeve (and Cait Sith) also joined them and made the evening somewhat more enjoyable...for three people who found such affairs tedious to begin with.

While they were at the dinner party, Genesis and Eden both had free time, so Genesis dragged Eden down to the Academy floors as the blond asked, "So what are we doing here?" That was only marginally better than his usual, "Where are we going?" which he'd asked three times already from the moment Genesis had snagged him.

"You'll see soon," was all Genesis replied (as he had every previous time), leading the way to one of the dorm rooms on the sixth floor and knocking. It was opened by a boy of about ten who had brown-blond hair and blue eyes—and who was absolutely delighted to see the red haired man.

"Hi Genesis! You didn't tell me you were coming tonight," the boy said as he stepped back from the door and motioned the pair inside. "Come in. Why did you bring a Turk here, though? Did something happen?" The boy suddenly looked worried.

"No, nothing has happened, but it turns out Eden has the night off," Genesis said as he motioned at the blond beside him, then shut the door. "I told you there was someone else who knew about those arrays besides me, and he's the one I meant." The red haired man then looked up at Eden and said, "This is Evan Townshend (1), the boy who was leaving arrays all around the city. I thought, since you know even more about the finer points of manipulating them than I do, you'd be able to help us sort out the knowledge he's getting."

"I see," Eden blinked, gazing at the younger boy evenly. For some reason, Evan reminded him of his brother, Al, as the boy peered up at him hopefully. "I don't mind helping out, then. Basics are really important in grasping what it is you're doing, what the data you're getting means. We should start with what you've already learned."

"Okay!" Evan grinned, going to his desk and grabbing some papers to take to the small, three-seat table between his door and bed. The room was pretty small, mainly with a closet, a desk and chair, a bed, a small washroom, and the table and chairs for company—there was nothing else in it.

They spent a few hours working with Evan on his alchemy before leaving with the intent to work on their own arrays for Felicia. For awhile, they did do that, then Genesis noticed Eden pausing and hesitating in their work, obviously distracted.

"Is something bothering you, Ed?" the older man asked curiously.

Letting out a small puff of air, the blond gave his head a small shake and said, "It doesn't feel right to just...leave it like this..."

"...Leave what like what?" Genesis blinked.

"Meeting Evan reminded me a lot of my brother, and I started thinking about what the people closest to me know...Then I thought it was really unfair for the Turks and Zack to know—which would probably mean Angeal and you would find out eventually—but _you_ didn't." After saying that, he looked up at Genesis and hesitated again. He was afraid of getting a bad result from the man—after all, he'd been hiding his origins from everyone on Gaia for five months, until he'd had that breakdown. And Aeris' casual acceptance of his origins had probably gone a long way towards helping Zack take it all in stride, but he didn't have either of those two present now.

"Know what?" the older man asked curiously, setting aside his papers to focus wholly on the blond a few feet from him.

Drawing in a deep breath, Eden decided to just go for it, and said, "This stuff—the arrays—can do things which access something my people knew as 'the Alchemist's Gate'. I had to exchange my life for my brother's on my homeworld for him to have a chance to live, and the 'price' I paid was to be sent to this world on a one-way trip. So yeah...I'm from another planet, not somewhere on Gaia." His gaze was cautious as he watched the man carefully.

First, Genesis blinked, then he reached up to rub his forehead. "...The Turks and Zack all know this, but nothing has changed?"

"Uh...other than a few topics of discussion, no," the blond replied.

The red haired man gave a small chuckle. "My head hurts with all the things about you that just fell into place, things that never made anything like 'sense' before..."

"...Is that good or bad?" Eden asked slowly.

For a moment, Genesis didn't answer, but then he dropped his hand and sighed as he met Eden's gaze. "I...Good, I think. This is kind of...shocking to hear and hard to wrap my mind around. I'm just really confused right now, about how I _should_ feel or react. With the examples Zack and the Turks have set, though—I don't think it'll change anything once I adapt."

The blond gave a small smile and said, "Thanks," his gaze notably relieved.

"Now that you've gotten that off your chest—I'm not sure I'm in any shape to keep working on these arrays just now," the red haired man commented in wry amusement.

"Then let's just visit for a bit."

"That's probably a good plan."

Soon after, the pair had put away the arrays and were just generally talking, mostly about their childhoods in their respective hometowns.

FoW

A few days later, the day after Eden's second break, Rufus and Eden made it to the lobby of the Shinra building looking a little singed, only to find an upset, terse Tseng waiting for them. It was snowing again, so they were a little soggy as well as singed.

"Well, I suppose I don't have to ask you if you met trouble this morning. Shall we retire to your office, Mr. Shinra?" the Director of the Turks asked formally.

"Of course," Rufus agreed, leading the two Turks up to the named room.

As they walked into the room, Rufus demanded the secretary to have the janitors bring them towels and to send someone to his home for a change of clothes (and to Eden's room for his change of clothes). Eden's change arrived quickly, but Rufus would have to settle for a Turk's spare uniform without the suit jacket until a Turk got back with the change of clothes Rufus needed.

Once the pair were as dry and tidy as they could be, the door was closed and the older blond asked the Wutain, "Have you found something, Tseng?"

"Nothing we can use to track them, besides the fact that they aren't 'human' the way we define the word," the Wutain replied. At Rufus' raised brow, he explained, "Well, some of them are obviously Ravens—but in far too literal a sense, and two, thankfully small, groups of your attackers have been those. The rest...they seem to be...sculpted to have an extremely realistic face, but under their clothes, they look more like skeletons wrapped in vacuum-packed plastic. We have some spirit-form monsters who have a similar appearance, minus the 'realistic human face'."

"So monsters are coming in here disguised as humans to attack _me_ in particular? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds, Tseng?" the older blond glared.

"Have you got a picture of them?" Eden asked the Wutain before the pending argument got going. Though, he didn't really think Tseng would rise to the bait while in Rufus' company, he'd probably have to let off some steam once he left the room.

"Here," Tseng agreed, drawing his PHS to find a photo, then turning the device so Eden could see it.

"They're similar," the blond Turk sighed.

"To what?" the older Turk blinked.

"I told you about the homunculi, right? Those are similar to some of the 'soldiers' the one called 'Father' sent after some of us. There's a good chance his new buddy had that data available to it, and these are temporary false beings he's using while perfecting his Ravens," Eden explained. "And the Ravens are becoming more and more literally that because of his new-found knowledge of alchemy."

"What do you mean, 'false beings'?" Rufus asked with a frown. "They aren't some sort of monster or you would have called them that, but there really is nothing else they could be."

"They could be—taken as a 'monster' of a sort here, but no. They're more like some sort of golem or—like one of the machines that came alive, like the Custom Sweepers or other ones like that. Except these things don't have anything like thoughts or feelings, they aren't even as 'human' as the Ravens, which are practically corpses, anyway. Their 'minds' of a sort work more like a very primitive computer, and they need to be given very specific orders in baby steps in order to fulfill them. I don't think Fuhito has figured that out yet, since I think the difference in their attempts to kill or capture most likely come from him confusing them with conditional orders they can't interpret," Eden told the President's son.

"So why are they after me? And why were humans mixed in with them?" the older blond asked, gaze showing puzzled confusion.

"If I may?" Tseng asked, lips pressed into a fine line as he realized what was happening. When Rufus nodded, the Wutain Turk said, "It's highly likely that Fuhito wants you so he can get his hands on some quick money, not by trying to pressure your father into giving him a ransom, but by hacking your ID and bank card to retrieve funds directly from your account. He needs you for that, hopefully alive to try to get your personal codes, but he'll take you dead as well, just so he can get the cards he needs to start hacking. That tells us he's getting short on funds, and while he can still operate, he's being slowly backed into a corner and is getting dangerous. It's also possible he isn't solely after you, he may be after both you and Eden."

"Why Eden?" Rufus blinked. "I know he's highly skilled, but that doesn't make him particularly valuable to Fuhito—he'd be like any other Raven, and no Turk would willingly help a man trying to devastate the world, let alone Shinra. He would know that."

Tseng and Eden traded looks, then Tseng nodded, so Eden asked, "You know that work Genesis and I are supposed to do to sort out Zirconaide?"

"Of course. What does that have to do with this?" the President's son asked darkly.

"If he's started learning about the arrays, which we think he has, he's finding most sources coming up short and not telling him how they work. I'm a known expert on them, making my knowledge very valuable to him," the blond Turk explained. "If he has a specific goal in mind, he'll do whatever it takes to accomplish it. If that means going after a Turk who has the knowledge he wants, he'll do it, just like he'll go after you to get funds. Assuming the being helping him doesn't give him an array to turn scrap metal into gold, or carbon—ash—into diamond, both reasons are valid for him to have his people, both human and golem, attack us. And us being together then makes us easy targets."

"In which case, I would suggest you both keep changes of clothes here to allow you to walk around in disguise without looking like yourselves, including wigs," Tseng offered. "At least until you're ready to leave on your trip. I don't think moving you to Junon—or anywhere else—would help as long as you were staying in one place for any length of time."

"Does that mean you're approving the trip you previously had a huge number of misgivings about?" Rufus asked, suddenly sounding amused.

"Don't think I don't still have misgivings about the trip," Tseng glared.

"So why are you approving it, then?" Eden asked curiously.

"It's turning out to be safer than having you in one single location, despite the team we need to develop to go with you on such a trek," Tseng replied. "We need to arrange no less than six people to go with you, and will only be able to secure the resources for it because—contrary to popular belief—your father has a bit of a soft spot somewhere in him for you, Rufus. If we keep Eden with you, we'll still have to arrange for at least two more Turks and three SOLDIERs. Those all primarily need to be people who want to develop an Enemy Skill Materia, and while I know Genesis does, Lazard and I need to have some time to work out the best team to go with you, also for their sheer firepower in an attack. As such, you need disguises until you're ready to go so you're harder to track and target—unless you want to literally be under our care and locked up in this building from now until then?"

Rufus made a disgusted face and said, "I would rather not, thanks. Though, if it's only for a couple more weeks, I could resort to that option if needed—say, if the disguises don't work for some reason. Well, I could always turn this into an excuse to act out and go completely punk for awhile. If I have to do it, I may as well go the whole nine yards and dye my hair, maybe even get a tattoo and some piercings and—"

"You realize those last two are permanent, right?" Tseng cut the blond off, clearly angry enough to be struggling to keep his temper in check.

"Why don't we just use the Change spell on my Mirage Materia?" Eden cut in, sounding amused. "It can make whatever changes to our looks we want, all of them temporary."

"That won't help your clothing, and if you're still dressed like normal, you'll be easily spotted, regardless. This time, you need actual, physical disguises," Tseng replied.

"Oh, then Genesis can probably help with that part," the younger Turk pointed out.

"Speaking of Genesis, you and he need some time to work, and the danger to me may be a good excuse to add him to guard duty. If he's the person to ask about disguises, he probably won't mind one, either, so long as it fits his persona," Rufus put in suddenly.

Tseng sighed and said, "Fine, I'll send him over and make whatever necessary arrangements with Lazard. We will assume Genesis will also be joining you on your world tour. Just... _don't_ go to the Northern Crater until you're all sure you have the experience and defenses to handle it."

"I can do that. Can we borrow a luxury airship to travel to some of the more remote locations with?" Rufus asked, his expression a smirk.

" _What_ remote locations?" the Wutain Turk frowned in puzzlement.

"Besides it being the easy path to Wutai, I've been doing some research into various regions—monsters, Enemy Skills, rare Materia, old caves and mines," Rufus answered. "There are _at least_ three locations we need to reach which are on remote islands—one of those would likely require a helicopter to reach as an airship would have nowhere to land—and there are some out-of-the-way areas we would have a much better chance reaching with an airship."

The black haired man gave a heart-felt sigh and muttered something like 'why are all executives so unreasonable?' He then looked up at Rufus and informed him, "Unfortunately, if you mean the locations I think you mean—the islands especially—even a helicopter can't access them. You'll need to breed or find a Gold Chocobo or hitch a ride on a Summon to get to them."

After a moment of silence, Eden asked, "Breed a Gold Chocobo?"

"The Chocobo Farm is able to, but we'd need to find them some mating pairs who are in excellent condition and make sure they're paid well," Rufus commented. "Especially since we'd need enough for a fair-sized group. Chocobos may not be practical, and I have no idea of the feasibility of having a Summon both large enough and capable of flying—or willing to fly—to those locations."

"There are several Summons _capable_ , but their willingness would be questionable at best," Eden agreed. "And one of the most obvious options, Bahamut, is one I can't deal with after Neo Bahamut accidentally led to me experiencing death for the first time. On the other hand, I could have a Summon like Odin carry me while the rest get a ride on a Bahamut or Neo Bahamut. Unless there's a way to get our hands on some Gold Chocobos for that part of the journey?"

"I can look into that," Tseng offered. "I don't think the Summons would be pleased to be asked to act as mounts or chauffeurs at any time, especially more than once or over a long trek. We're better off trying to get the Gold Chocobos."

"What does it take to breed one?" the younger blond asked curiously. At their disturbed expressions, he added, "In short form, unless you don't know?"

"We have records here of how, but it's difficult and time-consuming," Rufus finally answered. "Chocobos are normally yellow, and like any other creatures, some have better quality than others. Two of decent quality have a chance of producing young who are Blue or Green Chocobos—river and mountain, respectively. They may also produce other colors showing those traits, but not in such a stable form as the Blue or Green ones. The Blue and Green ones are necessary to mate with one another in order to produce a Black Chocobo, which is a combination of their skills. The Black then needs to be mated with a very good quality normal to produce a Gold Chocobo. The pairs require particular care and feeding to produce the results as well, and those are not cheap. Mainly, the issue with trying to breed Gold Chocobos is the time raising each pair takes, as it isn't only a few days for a chickabo (2) to grow up. We would have to wait over a year to acquire grown Gold Chocobos if we bred them ourselves. (3)"

"I see..." Eden stared. "Then you're right, and if we can't find someone who already has enough Golds, it isn't practical. We may have to use an airship to reach the various locations, then have a Summon just carry us from the airship to the ground and back up—they shouldn't be opposed to doing a short jaunt like that. Are we done so we can get Genesis over here?"

Tseng sent him a mild glare, but agreed, "For the moment. I'll head back to my office to make the arrangements."

"Tell Genesis I said he has to bring his paperwork because I don't have mine handy," the younger blond grinned impishly. "He'll know what you mean. Or what Lazard means if he ends up passing on the message."

"Fine," the Wutain nodded, then looked at Rufus. "Was that all on your end as well?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Rufus agreed. "We'll be awaiting Genesis' arrival, then." With a final nod, Tseng left the room, and the two blonds were left to wait for Rufus' change of clothes and Genesis' arrival.

Apparently, that was so boring Rufus decided to randomly ask, "Do you have plans for the Tree Lighting Festival, Eden?"

"What's a what now?" the younger blond asked blankly.

For a moment, the older blond stared at him in surprise, then snorted and chuckled. "About twenty-five years ago, my father decided we needed some sort of festival before the end of the year, so he set up a giant tree in Sector 6 on the Upper Plate back when it was barely starting to build and arranged for vendors to sell colored lights which could be hung on the tree to represent people's wishes and hopes for the coming year. Of course, we know it's really just a money maker, but people seem to like it, particularly because they can buy any color of light, but each year has a theme for a particular color and emotional interest. There are often also things like flower sellers who take advantage of the Lighting to sell their wares—something like, if the theme for one year is purple and good romance, the flower sellers will encourage people to buy purple flowers for their significant other or romantic interest. The tree is put up in the morning on the twenty-fourth and taken down just after midnight the night of the twenty-fifth in December." (4)

"That's only—the twenty-fourth is tomorrow, right?" Eden blinked.

"It is," Rufus agreed.

After a pause to calculate the days, the younger blond shrugged and said, "I'm on guard duty with you tomorrow and off half of the next, so I guess I don't have any plans. Working on the arrays then would be good. I'm kinda glad I have no plans, though, because I'd rather not be out in the snow doing something as ridiculous as lighting a light and hanging it on a tree."

"Really?" the President's son asked in mild surprise. "I thought I would use the excuse to visit the town tomorrow to get out of the office for awhile. There are no other such events here, after all."

With a snort, Ed agreed, "Sure, I'm game, I suppose."

"Game for what?" Genesis' curious voice asked from the doorway.

Rufus and Eden both looked at him, noting the stack of papers the red haired man carried. "I was going to head into town for the Tree Lighting tomorrow. With both you and Eden assigned as my guards for the time being, I suppose you would also be joining us, Commander," Rufus said formally. "How much have you been told about the situation here?"

Genesis gave an amused grin and said, "I don't mind. As for what I was told, you're being attacked upsettingly frequently by not-monsters and humans who can't seem to make up their minds if they should kill or kidnap you. The result is that you need disguises to walk around in and an additional guard to be on the safe side. Apparently, there's also a trip you'll be going on which I'll be joining you for, meant largely to find the more difficult-to-obtain Enemy Skills. Does that cover it all?"

"It does," Rufus agreed. "Obviously, some of your time will go to working out that issue for Felicia, but do you have any objections to working out disguises for us and going on a world tour to remote locations?"

"I have none," the older man grinned. "We'll need to call up someone to retrieve things for us while we work out the disguises—I was thinking of Shalua if you're agreeable?"

"That should be fine," Rufus agreed.

"Then let's get started!" Genesis practically crowed, pulling out his PHS to call his sister.

At the red haired man's almost manic grin, Eden muttered, "I suddenly have a bad feeling about this..."

"So do I," Rufus answered as softly with a small sigh.

 **Notes:**

(1) Evan Townshend exists in the Compilation of FFVII, in the light novels called "Lateral Biography Turks: The Kids Are Alright". He's about 18-19 in those novels, which happen leading up to Advent Children, and is noted to be, like Lazard, one of President Shinra's illegitimate children—another of Rufus' half-brothers. At this point in time, though, he's only 10, and no one but Evan's mother knows he's at all related to the President, so no one is looking for a link.

(2) I've seen a lot of random people call Chocobo chicks 'chickabos', even though there's nothing in the Compilation of FFVII which would indicate that's what they're called. On the other hand, I think it's a cute name for them, so I've decided to use it, too.

(3) Based on the timeline for the FFVII main game, they'd have had 3 weeks or so to breed 1 Gold Chocobo (or 3, one for each member of the main party to ride). That's not even feasible based on what they are, so I'm making the timeframe needed to raise Chocobos more realistic here—which also makes them _un_ realistic options for their trip.

(4) This Tree Lighting Festival comes across as a very odd mix of Christmas, New Year's, and the Tanabata Festival in Japan. Their Christmas and New Year's are similar to ours, and the 'hanging lights with their wishes on the tree' comes from the Tanabata tradition of hanging slips of paper with their wishes written on them off bamboo branches. An entire chapter in FFVII: Before Crisis is devoted to activities surrounding this Festival, though it was largely a cross between the Turks spying on Rude and a woman named Chelsea (a member of AVALANCHE in disguise). As far as I can tell, the only things making it 'like' Christmas are the date and the massive number of lights put up around Midgar. There are no other 'festivals' or 'holidays' noted in FFVII, though Wutai might have one or two which are never mentioned because the focus of the story is Shinra lands, leading to the assumption that they have no such holidays, and this one is a very recent creation.

For that matter, there weren't really any holidays mentioned in FMA:B/manga, either.


	11. 09-Gifts

**A/N:** For readers of both paths, half of this discussion (the part with the arrays) happened much earlier in Salvation's Hands, and the other half hasn't come up yet. In Genesis' defense, he had a lot on his mind in this one, so didn't have as much time to work as in the other. The two degrees of data will get caught up with one another, timeline-wise, eventually.

Gifts

The next day, Rufus, Genesis, and Eden had prepared the first trial of their new disguises. Rufus had gone with bright red hair like Reno's falling freely in a rather messy style similar to when Eden had taken him into the Slums, Genesis had turned his hair white, and Ed had made his a black braid. They also changed their eyes, Rufus to the same kind of green-hued bright blue as Reno had—the two could have passed for siblings like that—Genesis to green like his father's, and Eden making his brown. Rufus wore semi-casual dress clothes with a blue shirt, black pants, and a red scarf, Genesis' clothes were black and somewhat Goth in design (which made him look a little like Sephiroth), and Eden was dressed in what would have passed as a plain, non-descript, paperboy/crier style in Amestris. The names to go with the disguises ended up being David for Rufus, Albion for Genesis, and Sable for Eden.

On their way out, they passed a few of the Turks, Tseng, Emma, Reno, and Balto, whose reactions to the group's new looks proved the disguise was good at first glance. All of them were staring in surprise and confusion, even Tseng looking momentarily confused before remembering the whole disguise issue. It wasn't until they had nearly made it outside the Turks' range before they heard Balto ask if they were friends of Reno's, who asked him in reply if he really didn't realize who they were. After a pause, Balto just rubbed a hand tiredly over his face as Emma blinked in amazement. After that, the day passed quickly and quietly with no one the wiser, proving that the disguises were feasible for regular use.

FoW

A few days later, on December twenty-seventh, Eden had gone to get his copy of the arrays for Zirconaide when he, Genesis, and Rufus got to the Vice President's office so he and Genesis could work on it while Rufus did paperwork. The older blond gave them permission to lay out the arrays on his floor so they could see it properly—he had a very large office, so it was easy to find an out-of-the way area to lay them out. That, in turn, meant they started to see some very important points about the layout of the whole array as well.

It was Genesis who first pointed out a new indicator, pointing to three arrays near where he stood and near the outer rim of the circle. "This proves the theory of the seven-point array when they're laid out like this, but—there are _three_ overlapping circles here."

"Three, not two?" Eden blinked, peering closely at the arrays as he traced them with his eyes rapidly.

"Yeah, one's a three-point like we guessed. In the shard Felicia has, that circle is present, and it's a three-point. We just never laid it out properly in the correct format before," Genesis explained as he pointed to the middle of the pattern. He then looked up at Eden and said, "But there's also a five-point array between the two when you look at it like this." Genesis pointed to a section about one array outwards from where the arrays in Felicia's fragment ended and traced the circle in the air with his finger. "It wasn't until you told me about things like writing an array into a city that I realized we completely missed the obvious points of the _actual_ base functionality arrays, but it took looking at it like this for the points to come together.

"If I've got this right now, everything we had been taking as the arrays were just sub-arrays overlapping the three base ones, and the central array _isn't_ the one in the middle of Felicia's, it's the three-point array using those sub-arrays clustered in the middle—six, or two by three. The three-point array is overlapping a star, not even a six-point star, but a five-point star. The five-point array actually has fully twenty-five arrays forming it, and the seven-point array has all the rest—or one hundred and forty-seven of them. This also shows us twenty-one arrays which are broken, and three of those are overlapping Felicia's plus two of these, broken three ways, not two. Are you seeing this as well?"

Eden just stood where he was for several minutes, gaze thoughtful as he traced the arrays spread out on the floor with his eyes and Genesis watched him curiously. After a moment, Ed's hand moved up to his mouth and his other arm propped up the connected elbow, the sixteen-year-old's gaze intent while he calculated the details in his head and seriously compared his knowledge to what Genesis was proposing. He was seeing what the older man was saying, and working with seven-point arrays was hard enough without adding two more central arrays and a host of sub-arrays to it.

"You know, you're probably right," he said at last. "If I'm reading it right, we're going to have to move most of the broken arrays into the outer ones for the initial transfer." The words caused Genesis to look up at him in mild surprise, so he explained, "The ones which broke into three especially will have to be moved carefully, but those may be the only ones we want moved into Felicia's. Part of that is because hers has the over-all highest count to start with, so we don't want to make it too extreme when everything will have to move there. Or, the ones anchored to the middle may have to move to it...But it looks like you lined everything up, so the main thing we're looking at to fix the broken ones is to move them into the appropriate pattern or segment of pattern they're from."

"Segment of pattern?" the red haired man asked curiously.

"Well, the twenty-five sub-arrays allocated to the second array are arranged into sets of five themselves, so if one of the five in a set of five broke, we'd want to fix the one in the set of five and remove the broken part which left it dangling randomly. The sevens are arranged into three sets of seven with each point on the seven-point array, so if one of those was broken, we'd want to move it into the right set. In that regard, we might even have to move some of the complete arrays so the full sets of five or three-by-seven will be whole in whichever shard the set is most dominant."

After gazing at the array for a minute, Genesis nodded and pointed to one part as he said, "So where that broken array is and there are three of five whole sub-arrays in one shard and one whole one in the other, we'd actually want to move the single whole array to the one where the three are as well as fixing the broken one on that side?" (1)

"Right."

"...I think we need a detailed picture of this to work with."

"Yeah, because we can't just leave it laying out on anyone's floor. Rufus, do you have a safe place we can leave these laid out like this, where no one will disturb them?"

"Unfortunately, no, though I would gladly give you a place if there weren't things like janitors to worry about," Rufus replied, still working on his own paperwork.

"I can't do anything on this side—check with Tseng and Felicia to see if either of them knows a secure place we could lay these out and fix them into place. I'd especially hate for this array to be activated by someone while it's laid out whole..." Genesis commented after they knew Rufus couldn't help.

"That would be singularly frightening. Though, it might not activate without a soul attached to it, but that's not an experiment I'm willing to try or a risk I'm willing to take—all it would do is run the risk of creating a second Zirconaide which we'd have no way to do anything about."

"Too true," Genesis agreed.

A new voice to cut in from the direction of the door, "Are we interrupting anything?" Rufus, Genesis, and Eden all looked in that direction in surprise, only to see Reeve, Shalua, Shelke, Jessie, and Biggs—all of Reeve's established 'best workers'—and a Cait Sith. Shalua, Jessie, and Reeve each carried a box, Reeve's the smallest and mostly square, Jessie's about the same dimensions but larger in size, and Shalua's long and narrow.

"How can I help you, Reeve?" Rufus asked, rising and stepping around his desk. While his expression was carefully calm, his actions showed worry.

"We come bearing gifts. If you had a prior engagement, we can wait. On the up-side, this gets me away from my work for a bit," Reeve said with a smile, lifting the box in his hands. Shalua and Shelke split from the group to run to Genesis to hug him, and he happily returned their hugs as the three exchanged quiet greetings.

"No, there are no prior engagements," the blond said. He then looked at Reeve with a raise brow as he asked, "So, what gifts did you come bearing?"

"One for you and two for Eden," Reeve answered in amusement. "Though I guess one of those will act as a gift to everyone relying on him being an efficient combatant, assuming the trial works."

"Let me guess—you've got what you hope is a working replacement leg for me, right?" Eden asked curiously, his gaze on the box Shalua carried.

"I do," he smiled. "I sincerely hope it works. Could you roll up your pant leg so Shalua and I can see how it fits?"

"I can do that," Eden agreed, moving to a chair and sitting so he could roll up his pant leg.

Reeve tested how tight it was around his thigh with a finger under the rolled section, found the suit pants were loose enough to keep full circulation, and pulled out the metal leg from the box Shalua held moments after she joined them. The older man first held the new limb next to the one Eden already had, noting that Eden's was still somewhat more refined in design, then told the Turk it was extendable and sturdy, being made out of mythril.

He had Eden remove the old leg, then had the new one placed—an experience Eden swore was just as painful as any other auto-mail—and measured the flesh leg versus the metal one, adjusting the latter to the exact length of the former, then having Eden test how it moved by flexing and walking on it. The mechanics largely worked with just a slight delay, which Reeve was able to fix by adjusting a few if the internal connections.

"All right, that should do for now, and it showed me where a few adjustments need to be made," Reeve nodded. "If it works, though, that's the important thing, and you'll need to let me know when it's close to the limit of its extension—I could only safely add about an inch, and you're still in the infamous phase of the 'growing boy'."

"Ha, ha," Eden sighed, then grinned at the man. "Thanks, though. This is a damn good first try at something pretty much foreign to you."

"Thank you," the older man practically glowed at the compliment, then faced Rufus with another smile. "You can have your gift now, of course. Jessie has it in her box. To activate it, you'll have to name the device, nominally designed as a 'her', so have a look and see what you want to name her." At the words, brown haired Jessie moved over to the acting Vice President's desk and put the box on it, then lifted the lid with a grin.

Rufus curiously pulled out a Cait Sith unit, but rather than the usual black and white, the new one was white with a black 'V' under its chin and black cloth gloves. It was otherwise the same as Reeve's, though its crown was daintier. The white one looked like it was sleeping as Rufus first laid it down on the desk and stood looking down at it thoughtfully for a minute. Finally, he said, "I'll name you...Stray Hope (2)."

The cat's tail twitched, then it sat up and said in a very feminine but formal voice, "Name registry 'Stray Hope' accepted and verified." It then blinked _open_ its eyes to show golden cat's eyes, and said happily, "Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Stray Hope. What's your name?"

Everyone stared in shock except Reeve, who was grinning widely as he motioned for Rufus to answer. As such, the white-clad blond met the cat's eyes and said cordially, "I am Rufus Shinra. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Okay, good to know! Especially because you're my best friend," the white cat told him very seriously, the got up and reached her arms up to Rufus, clearly asking to be held.

"Go ahead," Reeve prompted, and Rufus lifted the cat into his arms—where she cuddled against him and started purring.

"...Reeve, exactly _what_ did you create for me?" Rufus asked in clear confusion.

"A Cait Sith which your father will really think is a toy and a companion for you," the older man answered in mild amusement. "I used Jessie's voice to program Stray Hope's synthetic voice—Shalua refused and Shelke's was already taken—but she _does_ have her own personality and is _allowed_ to be a hedonist. She has the same general functions of the other Cait Siths, with an added power supply storage meant to help keep the other of Eden's gifts powered. Of course, when you're out on your trip, you need to take a Cait Sith with you because no one is supposed to know Stray Hope has the same communication abilities."

"I see. Why does she need to have a power supply for Eden's Cait Sith?" Rufus asked, absently petting the robotic cat he held while she kept purring.

The older man paused and rubbed the back of his head as he said, "It isn't actually a Cait Sith. Shelke and Shalua sort of took over the design of it, and Biggs and I were only really able to keep them from making her _too_ cute for a man to want to be seen with. They would have made her pink and purple if I hadn't told them their only options were browns, grays, white, and-or black."

"...That doesn't sound good..." Eden commented slowly, so Reeve turned to face him in some amusement.

"It didn't turn out badly when you think about who was involved in making it. We can also make a few adjustments to superficial features if you really feel it's needed once you know what yours is able to do," the black haired man explained. He then took the smaller, squared box from the floor where he'd set it down and offered it to the blond teen, who was still sitting in the same chair, just with his pant leg down. "The functions of this model are different from the functions of a Cait Sith, hence why I wanted it to look different. I haven't decided on a product line name for it, yet, but now I know not to let young girls completely take over design.

"Anyway, you like to collect, record, and reference data, and the hardest part of developing her was finding a way to store the data in smaller storage systems than we currently use. You would also need a way to access the data again without leaving it open to anyone to access—I can just imagine the chaos _that_ would cause. As such, you need to designate both a 'true name' and a 'nickname' for her, because her nickname will be her active use name—the one everyone knows—and the true name will be how you access the data she's storing for you, so keep it close."

When Reeve offered the box to Eden, the blond pointed out, "Everyone in this room will hear both, won't they?"

"You can whisper her true name to her, as long as you tell her 'Your true name is' before you say it and register it first. Then you can say, 'but I'll call you' and give her the name she'll introduce herself with," the man informed him. "She won't 'wake up' until you give her both, like with Stray Hope. And to warn you, her voice is—very similar to Shelke's."

Eden opened the box and gazed at the creature in it, which somewhat looked like a dog which could stand upright and had a long, somewhat fluffy tail like a wolf's. The ears on her head looked like floppy rabbit ears, and her face had a distinctly rabbit-ish look to it. Hind paws were soft and her legs were built for jumping, but her front paws were hands without gloves, and there was a tuft on the top of her head. With the device being colored black, Eden found she wasn't 'too cute' for him to be seen with, and she was less than half the height of Cait Sith at about one foot tall.

As he held the device in his hands for a few minutes, he thought about the best name to give her, and suddenly got a crafty grin as he raised her ear to his lips to whisper to her. When Eden lowered the waking dog-rabbit, she spoke formally, "Name registry complete." Once she'd said that, she hopped up and said cheerfully, "Hi, I'm Libby! (3) What's your name?" Sure enough, her voice was a lot like Shelke's, and her eyes were purple.

"Eden, or Ed for short. Nice to meet you, Libby," Eden answered with a grin.

"Need me to store any data for you yet?" the black dog-rabbit asked curiously.

"I need to find out everything you can do before I start having you record data, so hang tight—maybe play with Stray Hope for a bit?"

"Play?" both asked, perking up at the words, then turning to look at one another curiously.

Rufus gave a snort and put Stray Hope down on the desk again as he said, "Yes, go ahead and play."

"Mind if I join 'em?" Cait Sith asked Reeve hopefully.

Everyone stared at the robots for a moment, then Rufus chuckled and said, "Yes, that's one way to make people think a useful device is just a toy—having it behave like a child. On the up-side, when there are several of them, they can keep one another entertained when they aren't helping us out."

"When they don't get into fights, the same way _real_ children do," Reeve replied with a small sigh. "Okay, go play. But Cait Sith, you're the oldest, so you need to be responsible and not get into fights with the younger ones."

"Right-o!" Cait Sith agreed, trotting over to Libby as Stray Hope jumped down off the desk to join them. The three robots moved off to a corner to play.

"Would you like to join them?" Genesis asked Shelke.

"No, I'm fine," the girl answered, staying quite happily leaning against his side so she could cuddle with him. "By the way, I found the programming error letting them get into fights and fixed it with Libby and Stray Hope. It just means they both have personalities more like mine—mellow. I didn't think you wanted me to just change the other Cait Siths though, and I kinda like our Cait Sith at home the way he is, anyway."

After most of the others chuckled, Eden's gaze moved to Reeve as he said, "Now, I need to know what all of Libby's functions are besides data storage. And how am I supposed to retrieve anything with her not having a screen for me to look at?"

"That's part of her functions," the man answered, sitting across from the blond. "I had to fore-go the power supply system—she has a small one, but it won't last long on its own power—because I had to have a functioning retrieval system for you. It's in the trial stages and may malfunction, but for the most part, it should be able to do what it's been programmed for. When you want to retrieve data, she's equipped with a portable holographic projector which will give you a kind of 'light screen' projected image—two-dimensional or three-dimensional—of whatever you asked her for. If the data you wanted was basic text, you'll essentially see the 'pages' with the data on them, since she's mainly taking pictures of the page, and she can also recite those to you if you ask her.

"However, because you deal so much with Lifestream energies and things like that, I also equipped her with sensors and gauges which will read and record energy levels around you—or her—and let her record energy-related data you ask her to. If she can't record it herself, she'll tap into Stray Hope, who will access my independent mainframe for her to register or record the data. If the test I ran with Shelke and a Restore Materia was any indication, Libby should also be able to record things like your casting energy usage on a meter. There are values of a sort to the meter, but she needs to adjust those from person to person because you and Genesis can do much more with a set amount of energy than the average person can. She was also able to measure the energy input, output, and exhaust levels of the Reactors, so she has a good range. If you're heading to places like Mideel and the Northern Crater, those readings may help you avoid Mako sinks."

Reeve paused for a moment, then went on, "But energy is three-dimensional, not two, so her holographic systems will let her develop three-dimensional images, and one of the things she's pre-programmed with is a world globe. I thought about some things I knew you would want, especially since your pending trip is no secret to the executives, so she also has data on various areas of the world, including hard-to-reach or rarely-visited ones, on Materia, on monsters, and on the Enemy Skills. You can expand on the data as well as adding your own, and you can designate the data as 'private' or 'public'. What she already has is public, so if you asked her about unique places near Gongaga, she'll access her databank and tell you what she knows. The projector can _only_ be accessed if you use her true name as the code to access private data, so anything which isn't data she can just recite in words or numbers is private by default—images and such."

"I see," the blond Turk murmured as Genesis gave an impressed whistle.

"I'd suggest the _first_ thing you have her record for you is the arrays you're working on right now, both as they're laid out now and as individual arrays," Rufus offered. "Since you were just discussing how dangerous it would be to leave them lying around for someone to find."

"A flat image we can't adjust to see certain areas more clearly won't help," Eden answered dryly. "It's a good idea to have the record, though."

"Actually, Libby's programming and the interaction holographic devices have of their own accord means you _can_ move things around on the projected image," Reeve said, and all eyes went to him in surprise.

"Explain," Genesis demanded.

The black haired man nodded and told the two working on the array, "If every array is recorded individually, then recorded as a whole unit, Libby has all of the data to show every one of the independent arrays fully, even in the complete image, and she's going to adapt them to both cut off the excess background and fill in the blanks covered by the overlapping sheets. These are simple crop and insert commands most word and photo modifying programs have, and are included in holographic technology. Because each array is a separate entity, you'll be able to reach out and touch one with your finger and move it aside—just let her know not to save the changes, or to save the changes in a separate file. What I meant about seeing a 'page' of text was more if you just wanted her to keep the data on a computer screen or the page of a book, in which case, the 'page' couldn't be modified, itself, but if you called up several 'pages' at once, you'd be able to move each page you asked for around, re-order them, whatever...even have her display the corresponding data on the world globe..."

That produced more impressed whistles, that time from Rufus, Eden, and Genesis, even as Jessie, Biggs, Shalua, and even Shelke, smiled proudly and Genesis said reverently, "You have _got_ to make me one of those!"

Reeve blushed faintly, then commented, "I can see what I can do for you, Genesis. Now, we all have work to get back to, so we should head out."

 **Notes:**

(1) Okay, I probably made that somewhat confusing, but in discussion between two people who know what they're talking about, putting in the baby steps begins to sound strange. As such, here's what's happening with the arrays.

Zirconaide's arrays are three-dimensional because there are so many arrays involved—their inter-locking forms shape a globe rather than just a circle, but they still form flat circles on a flat plain for the three central arrays Ed and Genesis were talking about.

All of the 'arrays' they've been talking about up to this point are 'SUB-arrays', not just 'arrays'.

The seven-point, five-point, and three-point arrays are the actual base arrays of the whole system, but couldn't be seen until all the sub-arrays were laid out properly, because two of the three were shattered into multiple pieces and the third has attached sub-arrays laid out in an uncommon form.

The seven, five, and three main arrays are IN ADDITION TO the numbers Genesis gave:

2 x 3 (6)

5 x 5 (25)

7 x three x 7 (147)

Meaning each anchoring array has an additional number added to it:

2 x 3 (6) + 3 = **9**

5 x 5 (25) + 5 = **30**

7 x three x 7 (147) + 7 = **154**

for a grand total of **193**. (Sorry for the oddity of the written 'three' in the numbers-apparently FFN doesn't like 7's and 3's next to each other? I also had a problem with my two's and three's showing up together until I separated them out like this.)

When Eden later mentions the five-point arrays being personality-related, that's because Zirconaide shattered with each point of the five-point anchored in separate shards, but not one of them has a complete cluster (of five) around that point. That's why their behavior is so skewed.

Of the total number of arrays, 2 of the 3 main arrays are broken into five pieces running across all five shards, and 21 sub-arrays in addition to that are broken into two or three parts. Every cluster is broken to some extent, other than the three-point ones.

Did I miss any important details in exactly what Ed and Genesis are trying to fix?

(2) So, since Rufus named his dog Dark Nation, I thought about what kind of mindset he'd have been in to do that. Then I thought about how his mindset has changed since Eden's arrival, and figured he'd be in a better frame of mind, hence 'Stray Hope' for this white cat he now owns.

(3) Yes, I'm keeping Libby's actual name secret for awhile, but I've already decided it! :P The name is the same in both FoW and SH.


	12. 10-Setting Out

Setting Out

"The others can go, but there's one other thing I'd like to discuss with you while you're here, Reeve," Rufus said before the older man could leave.

"There is? All right, then," the man nodded, then shooed the others back to his office as he turned back to Rufus. Their departure left Rufus, Eden, Genesis, Reeve, Cait Sith, Stray Hope, and Libby. The three robots were still playing happily in the corner, so the others settled in seats around Rufus' desk at the white-clad blond's indication.

"What did you need me to stay for, Rufus?" Reeve asked curiously.

"The Reactors have mainly been modified now and the new plans established, yes?" Rufus asked. "All of the funding has already been allocated and the work begun?"

"They have," the man agreed.

The older blond's gaze moved to Eden as he said, "It occurred to me that your project to return the Materia to energy forms wasn't something I could watch over—not well, at least—while we traveled. As such, I thought Reeve may be the best one to watch over it in our stead, and it's highly unlikely anyone would be all that surprised by him taking the idea to the Science Department. Of course, that means you need to tell him your plan if he's agreeable."

Eden glared at the older blond for putting him on the spot and as much as forcing him to give up that project, then sighed as Reeve echoed, "Return Materia to energy forms?"

"To revert them back to Lifestream energy once they've reached Mastered status—something which is a requirement for them to begin breaking down," Eden explained. "They go through the process naturally once Mastered, but even with regular use, they take thousands of years to break apart back into Lifestream energy to return to it. The difference is that a Mastered Materia has a great deal more energy to return to the Lifestream than what originally formed it, and all but its creation energy came from a source _not_ Lifestream energy. With how fast the Reactors are sucking Lifestream out of the Planet, having Zack able to Master Materia so fast is good, but the problem is finding a way to return them faster to restore the lost energy. With me having to work on the arrays for Felicia around all my other work, this gets put on the back-burner. If the Science Department can take it..." Eden explained, drifting off at the end.

"So you need someone who can give the data to the Science Department and check in with them every so often for their progress, is what you're saying?" Reeve asked curiously.

"That was the plan," Eden agreed, feeling tired suddenly.

"I think Reeve is a great choice, just for the fact that he'll know enough to recognize discrepancies," Genesis agreed. "He doesn't need all the details to do it because he has some basics—he sure doesn't need our level of knowledge."

"I know that," the Turk scowled at the SOLDIER. "I just..."

He drifted off and an awkward silence fell before Reeve broke it by saying, "I can watch over it. It sounds intriguing, actually, and Rufus is right to say it wouldn't be out of place for my department to look into something like that—to better society, you know?" Reeve said in amusement. "Do up some data for me and send it over. I'll take it from there."

"Okay, I'll do that," Eden agreed. "Thanks again, Reeve."

"If that's all now, I also have work—quite a bit of it—to get back to," Reeve said, rising. At the nods from the two blonds, he added, "Thank you for trusting me with one of your projects, Eden. We'll be in touch. Come on, Cait Sith."

"See you around," the blond answered as he left, Cait Sith joining him at the door.

With a sigh, Eden gave his head a shake, then retrieved his sock (he only wore the one on his flesh foot) and boots to put them on. As he did, Rufus commented, "It may be wise to get Libby to start working, since we'll be leaving here before too long."

Eden was about to say something, then apparently changed his mind and asked instead, "Could you go grab your copy of the arrays so we don't have to break the laid-out one for her to copy each one individually, Genesis?" He moved back over to the array as he did so.

"Rufus?" the red haired man asked as he looked at Rufus with a raised brow. When Rufus gave a nod, the red haired man walked out.

Into the resulting silence (besides the noise Stray Hope and Libby made as they played a clapping game), Eden asked, "So was Reeve just guessing what he should put in the existing database?"

"Not quite," Rufus answered. "Well, I didn't ask him for a globe or map, and I had already researched most of the locations in the world which would be potential locations for hidden treasures, so didn't ask for those. Having a quick-reference database of the important points seemed practical, however. I didn't expect him to add all that to the device he was making for you."

Eden frowned as he commented, "We're traveling to find you the Enemy Skills. Why did you ask him to include Materia data?"

"Because I know your reputation for finding rare Materia, and it would truly be a waste—and a shame—not to go hunting for the very rare ones while looking for Enemy Skills. As such, part of our route will be for the purpose of collecting Materia, and I planned to visit the Materia Mines as well as other locations specific to finding Materia, not just Enemy Skills. Tseng is aware of that as I had to ask him where you had already searched, so has planned an extra person to join us as far as the Mythril Mine."

"Why as far as the Mine?" Eden asked in confusion, looking up at the older blond for the first time since the others had left.

"We need to actively participate in the Chocobo Races at the Chocobo Farm (1) to get some of the Materia. Since I gather you don't ride much, we needed a few people who could deliberately earn first, second, and third place," the older blond answered, going back to his paperwork.

"...Okay, then I think you need to sit down with me to show me this route of yours," the younger blond answered dryly.

"Later—likely tomorrow," Rufus agreed absently, mind on the papers in front of him.

Soon after, Genesis had returned with his stack of arrays, and Eden got Libby to start copying them, leaving Stray Hope to curl up in Rufus' lap while he worked. Once the individual arrays had been copied and the whole array registered in Libby's systems, Ed activated the holographic projection by whispering her true name to her so they could see how it worked. Genesis and Eden both fell completely in love with it when they realized they could move around every array as groups or individual items as they saw fit. Libby's new program was going to make their lives a lot easier.

FoW

It only took a few more days for them to be ready to head out on the first leg of their journey. For their timing to have the last of the SOLDIERs who would be traveling with them available, they would be leaving on January second. Their main travel group was established as Eden, Ruluf, and Freyra from the Turks and Genesis, Kunzel, and Luxiere from SOLDIER, along with Rufus (obviously), Libby, Stray Hope, Dark Nation, and one of Reeve's Cait Siths. While Dark Nation was combat-capable, the three devices weren't, and the only thing they could all be grateful for was that Dark Nation seemed to like the robots well enough—and Libby and Stray Hope just didn't fight with one another, leaving Cait Sith the requirement to follow suit.

Eden had part of December thirty-first off from work—his scheduled time off from guard duty—so he'd be able to visit with his friends as well as with Aeris, which Eden had to do because Tseng had given him a letter for her. That day, he spent time with all the Academy kids, the two Cadets, with Rude, and with Vant, Sephiroth, and Angeal. Vant especially surprised him by how much he'd come out of his shell by having Sephiroth and Anthony to be a father to. He would have visited with Balto, as well, but he was away on another mission.

That was also the first time he realized his balance was off, as he tripped while stepping onto the train, only not landing flat on his face because he'd had his hand on the rail separating the door from the seat next to it. By extension, he started assessing his leg—and actively realized his clothes were feeling tight and weren't the proper length. With some bemusement, he realized he had hit a growth spurt, so made a mental note to stop at the tailor's for some new, larger clothes when he got back to the Shinra building, and to watch his footing until it stopped. He would also have to see Reeve about another leg as soon a possible on their trip, and was just thankful the man had somehow had the foresight to include leg extension to account for him possibly growing.

It was about an hour after supper when Eden made it to Aeris' home, knocking on the door as he grinned. It had been awhile, and would likely be another while before he'd see her again. When the door opened, Aeris gave him a grin and a hug before inviting him in. Then Libby hopped up to greet the girl cheerfully, prompting Eden to introduce the robot to Aeris and Elmyra. Libby started exploring the home and poking into corners as the three humans sat at the table with some tea. The first thing Eden did was give Aeris the letter from Tseng, waiting quietly while she read it.

When she finished, she looked up and asked, "You're going on a trip?"

"Yeah, a pretty long one," Eden agreed. "Rufus wants to travel and explore a lot of dangerous areas, so it was best for me to visit with you now rather than putting it off for later on."

"You aren't going to tell me you're likely to die, are you?" the girl asked worriedly.

He blinked in surprise, then chuckled. "No, we're all good. It's just going to be a really _long_ trip, even if we're doing parts of it by airship. I mean, the first two segments of the journey the way Rufus split them up will probably take at least three weeks because we have to walk, and when we get up into the Northern Continent, the time will increase by the number of monsters we have to fight. Especially with the purpose of our trek taking us right into the Northern Crater."

Aeris' eyes widened and she repeated in alarm, "The Northern Crater? Where Jenova was sealed for thousands of years?"

Shrugging, the blond said, "Yeah. It's the last place we're going, though, and we all know we'll be ready to fight the monsters there by the time we get that far."

Giving her head a shake, she replied, "But the monsters there are much stronger than everywhere else in the world, Eden. And it's not just the monsters, it's the terrain, and the weather. The Crater isn't stable, and you could easily get lost in the caves riddling the area or get caught in cave-ins, and add to that the blizzards and cliffs and—"

"Aeris," he cut her off with an amused look. She silenced, so he said, "We accounted for that. SOLDIER Seconds can fight everything up to the Great Glacier easily, and they only aren't sent solo to the area because of the numbers. We're going to have a First and two skilled Seconds, as well as three Turks and the ability to call for reinforcements. The two Directors of the two programs agreed our current group should be able to handle it easily, especially if we don't start there."

The girl was quiet for a moment, so her mother took the opportunity to ask, "When are you leaving?"

"Right after breakfast on the second. This is my last chance for a visit that I'm guaranteed of until we're done the whole trip, even though we're going to be stopping back in at Midgar or Junon between each leg of the journey so everyone can rest and the President can see for himself how his son is doing. In the case of our first two parts, we're going to end up in Junon at the end of the walk the first will be, so that counts as our check-in before heading to Costa del Sol, but we're probably only going to spend a day or two there. It's after the second part when we'll possibly have a few days or a week between each of the other legs," he explained.

"And you're really going everywhere, even to all the islands nobody usually cares about?" Aeris asked suddenly, gaze intent.

"That's the plan," Eden agreed.

"Some you can't get to, even with an airship, because the airships can't land on them," the brown haired fifteen-year-old pointed out.

"We've thought of that, too, and our only real option is with some help from the Summons—just enough to go from the airship to the ground and back again. I asked mine if they minded, and they were fine with it if it was just a small jaunt like that, as long as they also got to stay free for a bit afterwards to look around."

"Well, at least you have that much," Aeris agreed. "Now, how is Tseng actually doing? No one will tell me anything."

At her pouting face, the blond Turk grinned and said, "Don't worry, he's fine. Tired from randomly getting command dropped on him a lot sooner than he was expecting, but fine otherwise. I think the thing he likes least about his new position is his inability to go out and investigate things himself in most situations."

"Really?" the girl asked in surprise, then grinned. "He did always like wandering around some." Aeris smiled happily.

They went on to other general discussions, and Eden was happy when he left.

FoW

On the morning of January second, the group set for the journey gathered in Rufus' office, joined shortly by Zack. As soon as he got there, Zack tossed a small bag to Eden, which he caught as Tseng and Lazard arrived. "Got that done. Anything else you want me to work on while you're away?" the black haired First asked the blond Turk.

With a wry grin, Eden said, "Just keep Mastering things. Though you may want to ask Tseng what you should be working on." The words produced a raised brow from the Wutain.

"Got it, I'll do that," Zack grinned cheerfully.

Eden pulled a few Materia from the bag and slotted them, then tucked the bag away as Rufus looked around before saying, "It looks like we're all here now. Tseng, Lazard, you wanted to address us before we headed out?"

With a nod, Lazard said, "Yes. Because Zack isn't building an Enemy Skill and isn't designated as your main party, he will join you only if there's a need or purpose for him. Currently, by one of your requested—and needed—stops, you'll have him through the Marsh by the Chocobo Farm. Kunzel and Luxiere are going to use this trip as their promotion, and hopefully both will be promoted by the time you get to the last segment of your trip. Zack will be on standby then in case things turn out badly. Also, it was Kunzel and Luxiere who managed to find three more Enemy Skill Materia, the one for Rufus and two others in case Luxiere and Ruluf would like to develop them."

"I don't really need one, but we can build it up for later use," Luxiere offered, and Lazard nodded, then looked at Ruluf.

"I can build one and see how it works for me," Ruluf replied to the look.

"In that case, Luxiere, give one to Ruluf and the last to Rufus, please," Lazard answered.

The dark haired SOLDIER Second, who had his helmet off that day, grinned as he tossed a yellow Materia to Ruluf—who caught it neatly and slotted it—then moved over to the desk so he could offer another to the blond. "You're really lucky we managed to find these, since they don't duplicate when they Master. We had to check almost every current Reactor for one—I think we only didn't make it to Junon's and Nibelheim's."

"...That's a lot of traveling..." Rufus blinked in surprise, taking the orb. "I had no idea Enemy Skill Materia were so hard to find."

"I only agreed to offer you one because I knew I'd be able to find another," Eden said wryly. "It just would have extended the trip if we'd had to _find_ it before we could start gathering the Skills. Thanks, guys!"

Both Seconds grinned and Luxiere answered, "We got a pretty good hoard of Materia we and the Cadets can use, too, so it was worth it. Nothing overly special, but better than we'd usually have to help us prepare for more difficult missions."

"Win-win," the blond Turk grinned.

"Can we get on with things, please?" Tseng asked tiredly, then turned to the door as it opened—and Cait Sith walked in with a wave.

"Sorry I'm late—I was finishin' some new outfitting fer th' trip," the cat said in an oddly toned down accent. When the others stared, Cait Sith added, "One part was th' accent so it's easier fer others to understand."

"I'm sure that's appreciated," Tseng told him, then faced the others again. "Now, the first part of the journey which runs from here to Junon will be taking place entirely on foot, and should take you about five days, unless you stay overnight at Kalm, the Chocobo Farm, or Fort Condor in any combination. I'm expecting you to stay at the latter two, but you'll still have at least two overnights outside, so we've prepared some gear for you. Those should be in the same room where Dark Nation is currently waiting for you on the main floor. In the interests of expedience, when you reach Junon, the various suites in the Presidential Residence there should be ready, as well as outfitted with replacement supplies for your trip across to Costa del Sol."

He paused for a moment before meeting Rufus' eyes and saying, "With our current situation, you'll be able to choose your method across the ocean, but you won't have further such transportation available until you reach Rocket Town, so the more out-of-the-way places you wanted to visit will have to wait. There were three such locations you'll have to reach by airship, but the rest of your journey to Rocket Town will be on foot. The problem will be Mount Nibel in winter, but Cadet Strife has said the mountains are 'passable with caution, as long as you don't get caught in a blizzard.' If you can't pass through the mountains, you may have to go around by the coast, which will still be a trying journey, and a longer one.

"Wutai should actually be the easiest part of the journey thanks to the end of the war and the new situation there, also because all the places you want to reach are in a fairly small portion of the continent. We aren't anticipating trouble or difficulties there, but you may be asked to visit the Emperor on the President's behalf, Rufus. If that's the case, you'll be in the area for upwards to a week. We should know by the time you're done with the previous leg of the trip.

"The fourth part is the extensive one, and will be done almost entirely by airship with short jaunts between close-together locations. We're fine-tuning the best order for the pilot—you'll nominally have use of the Highwind for the journey—but it's going to range from the small islands scattered around to the Mideel and Banora area. Genesis, even when your party stops in your hometown, please remember you're working, not there for a visit."

"Right," Genesis agreed, his expression a little strained.

"What we have some issue with is the temple-like structure on the island south of Junon," Lazard said, and all the others perked up. "We know it's there, and we've sent people to look into it in the past, but no one has ever been able to access it and even trying to blow it up—that was Heidegger's bright idea—didn't work. You can't force your way in, so keep your eyes and ears open for any information on it which we may not know. We're expecting you to have to visit it more than once, unless you simply give up on it, so that's where your time will be spent—trying to solve the puzzles it presents. All other areas you'll be visiting, of the ones we know about, will be less strenuous and less time-consuming. As such, that segment of the journey will be listed as a 'variable timeline' and you may have to let Captain Highwind go back to his other responsibilities until you figure out how to access it."

"At that point, however, there will be a helicopter available to take you to various places if you don't want to—or can't—walk," Tseng added. "Now, the last leg of the journey will be the one from Bone Village to the Northern Crater. The area of Icicle Inn and north is highly volatile and follows no discernible weather patterns—we suspect a monster's involvement, but the issue has never been seriously examined before. Even if you get there in the height of summer, you may still end up caught in a blizzard, so you've been scheduled to return to Midgar for a week while we arrange appropriate supplies for you. Even though it isn't 'normal' for Turks or SOLDIERs to be out of their uniforms, we already got approval from the President to have you wear proper winter gear over them while you're there. If you want Quis or Judet or both—who are also in the north working on missions—to join you for that segment, let us know as soon as possible so we can send supplies for them as well."

He paused again before looking around at all of them. "In the north, I would advise you to include Judet and to _pay attention_ to her advice, as she knows the northern climate and will be able to keep you out of serious trouble. Part of your supplies will include food, as we don't actually know how long it will take you to get from Icicle Inn to the deepest parts of the Crater and back to Icicle Inn, but those are all details we'll finalize later, closer to the time you'll be heading out there. For now, you'll have some supplies to start out unless you want to buy some at Kalm and Fort Condor, but you should only need a day or two, not several. Does that cover everything now?"

"It sounds like it," Rufus agreed, then looked at Eden. "Do we need to stop at Kalm?"

"Not unless you want to stay there overnight, but it only takes half a day to get there from Midgar on foot, so for timing, the first part of the trip will go faster if we camp out the first night and stay at the Farm the second," Eden answered.

"We'll take some food with us for the first day, then," Rufus agreed, and the other travelers nodded, looking thankful. The President's son then looked at Tseng and asked, "So, will I have a weapon or have you decided against that?"

The Wutain Turk nodded and pulled a holster from his belt, where he'd had it tucked in and hidden by his suit jacket until then. Offering it to Rufus, he said, "It's one of ours, so it packs a punch. I sincerely hope you'll do it justice and improve your aim over the course of the journey. Use the bullets sparingly during the first part of the journey, though, because our shipment is overdue and I could only give you two extra clips. You'll be able to get a proper re-stocking when you get to Junon, with the supplies we'll have there for you."

Rufus took it with a nod and examined it for a moment before slipping his long suit jacket off and pulling the gun on so the holster straps held it to his side under his left arm. He then pulled his jacket back on and picked up Stray Hope. "Thank you. Well, then, it looks like we're ready to head out. Let us know via PHS if there's something else you need to add or something you need to inform us of. Is Dark Nation still in the empty meeting room, or was he moved to one of the storage rooms?"

"Still where you left him, or he should be," Tseng agreed. "Travel safely."

The others gave him wryly amused looks, then the travelers headed out to collect Dark Nation and their supplies. Once they had, their next stop was the train station, then out through the Sector 3 Slums so they could take the most direct route east out of the city on foot.

 **Notes:**

(1) Keep in mind that the Gold Saucer hasn't been built yet—as far as I know, it was actually built on the remains of Corel (and that was why Corel became a prison), which was destroyed in 0003. As such, the Farm is the main location for Chocobo Racing in December 00 and January 01.


	13. 11-More Companions

More Companions

As the group reached the gate in the built section of the city wall, they stopped to stare. A tired-looking Felicia and Shears, an exasperated and irritated Cissnei, and a cheerful Aeris were standing there, apparently waiting for them, Aeris with a pack of supplies on her back and another one in her hand. Freyra, Luxiere, Kunzel, and Genesis looked at her in confusion, wondering why the others had stopped—they didn't know her. Dark Nation, on the other hand, bolted ahead of the group to run right up to the girl, put his front paws on her shoulders, and lick her face, making her laugh and pet him before pushing him back down to all fours so she could rest her hand on his head.

"Aeris...what are you doing here?" Eden asked her warily.

"Oh, I'm going with you. Minerva said I should," the girl answered happily, causing the others to trade incredulous looks. "I even planned to have someone else join you with me, but Cissnei doesn't seem to want to take her bag yet."

Several brows rose as Freyra asked, "What's she talking about, Cissnei?"

"I don't really have a clue, except that apparently Shears and Felicia decided I was supposed to act as Aeris' guard, and when I called Tseng a few minutes ago, he said he'd get back to me on that," Cissnei answered, still looking irritated.

"You know it's dangerous out there, right?" Zack asked her, looking worried.

"Of course," she agreed, then reached out to grab the pole sticking out of her pack. She extended it to reveal a full-size staff meant for combat and said, "I brought my staff just in case, and I'm a really good healer."

"But—" Zack tried to say.

"We don't have time for this," Rufus scowled. "You're really determined, aren't you, Miss Gainsborough?"

"I am," she agreed cheerfully. Shears and Felicia sighed.

The President's son pulled out his PHS and dialed Tseng's number. As soon as it was answered, he said, "Aeris Gainsborough is apparently very determined to join us, and we don't have the time to stand here and argue about whether or not she does. Unless you plan to have someone manhandle her back home—which may not keep her there, regardless—could you just approve things so she at least isn't traveling alone and unprotected?" After a silence, he said, "Good," and hung up.

A surprised, silent minute later, Cissnei's phone rang, and she answered it with, "So, which way am I going?" After a minute, she said, "Got it. Don't worry." When she hung up, she looked at the others and said, "We can head out. For the moment, I'll use what Aeris apparently prepared, but Tseng said he'll have appropriate supplies for the two of us added to what's in Junon. And he said it might be prudent to somewhat disguise her when we're there."

"That's fine," Eden agreed.

"Good. That means we can go," Rufus nodded, and immediately set out again, even as the guards at the gate opened it just in time for him to pass through.

The others followed him, Cissnei grabbing the second bag the other fifteen-year-old was carrying and pulling it onto her back as Zack joined them to put an arm around Aeris. Felicia and Shears walked with Eden long enough to let him know how they had gotten involved (Felicia had been returning to the city on foot and caught Aeris leaving without her usual observer from Gaia's Refuge, so had called Shears, who had found Cissnei on his way to meet them and dragged her along), then the two headed back into Midgar. While Rufus had tried to take the lead, Genesis quickly caught up with him and pulled him back with sharp words about not running away from his guards in dangerous territory.

As they were walking, Genesis asked, "So, Eden, exactly who is that girl that you and Tseng are apparently catering to her?"

"Oh, Eden and Tseng are my brothers in all but blood," Aeris said candidly from where she was walking with Zack to one side of her and Cissnei to the other, just behind Rufus, Genesis, and Eden. She was grinning as she said it. "And Eden, who are all of your companions? I only know Zack, Ruluf, and Mr. Shinra." Several brows rose at the last name.

"When did she meet Rufus?" Genesis asked in bemusement.

"Same time she met Ruluf, when I took Rufus on that tour of the Slums plainclothes," Eden shrugged, and many more brows rose at that. Eden then went on, "Anyway, all of these people are—" and introduced the rest of the group to her.

Soon after, they had established a marching order of a sort for that day, though Freyra and Kunzel would be retaining their positions as forward and rear scout respectively, both just within view of the group and arranged to give them warning of monsters. Eden and Genesis stayed close to Rufus while Zack and Cissnei walked with Aeris just behind the older blond, the first group with Dark Nation and Cait Sith, the second with Stray Hope and Libby, who were chasing one another around the three. Ruluf and Luxiere just watched with amusement from behind them. If the territory had been more dangerous, the formation wouldn't have been so lax.

They found the Custom Sweeper for the Matra Magic Enemy Skill, stopped for a midday meal, then set out again soon after, stopping for the evening meal before traveling a bit further that day. They had to stop a bit sooner than usual because night was falling earlier than the last time Eden had passed through, but they had still traveled a good distance, and it was warmer where they were currently than it had been in Midgar. Morning saw them eating a meal, then proceeding towards the Chocobo Farm, rather than right to the Marsh and Mythril Mine.

On the way, they found some monsters like a squirrel-dog in brown which apparently liked to burrow under the ground and jump out to attack people, but it also had an Enemy Skill which was referred to as 'Suicide' (1) for some reason. With some protection in the form of Big Guard, they figured out the attack wasn't hurting its caster, but it should have done _them_ a great deal of damage. It surprised Eden a bit to actively realize he had missed an Enemy Skill on his way through the first time, but he felt better when Kunzel said he was the only one who had it before the battle with the Mus had started.

It was about lunchtime when they got to the Farm, and it was a rather busy place with an obvious racetrack of a sort circling it, including some obstacles. The outdoor paddock held several very colorful Chocobos, and a large tent had been set up for food. Near the paddock was another tent where they were apparently taking race registries and bets on the races, which would be starting in about an hour and a half. Freyra, Zack, and Luxiere registered for the races after picking Chocobos the Farm had raised to provide for potential jockeys, then they all sat and ate. While they were waiting for the races to start, they explored.

In the farmhouse, Eden found the 'Inn' and a woman who said she was the farmer's wife and sold the Chocobo Lure Materia for anyone who wanted to find wild Chocobos, either just to ride for awhile or for breeding. Her husband's grandparents ran the Inn, and in the stable, her husband had gysahl greens to give the wild Chocobos so they wouldn't run away. Eden bought one of the wife's Materia for thirty-three hundred gil (2), then went back to talk with the others about whether or not they needed any greens. The answer was 'no', since they were actually trying to get the Enemy Skill Chocobuckle from them, not ride them, and there was only one place they would potentially want to ride wild Chocobos, anyway—the stretch from Corel over to Nibelheim.

Finally, it was time for the races, so the group gathered to watch while Zack, Freyra, and Luxiere got their Chocobos ready and led them to the starting line. Most of the other jockeys, the ones who made a living off racing, jeered at those three at first, but the three just grinned. When the races started, it quickly became clear the three of them were very good, switching places with one another more than once and staying ahead of the pack. The last stretch was where they surprised everyone because they had been thinking Zack would be the first place winner, but Freyra ended up coming in first by sending her Chocobo into a sprint so close to the finish line that Zack couldn't catch up again. Luxiere just laughed at the two as he came in third.

Then came the bet results and the rewards. Only one person had bet on Freyra, and that had been Cissnei, who just smirked at everyone's horror and surprise at the haul of gil she had just brought in because she had bet triple on her co-worker. Her response to the others' amazement was, "Seriously, she's from the same town where hunting is a way of living and high quality wild Chocobos are running around. There was never a question in my mind." As for the rewards, Freyra got the first place prize—their last one—of a Multi-Cut Command Materia (3), Zack got the second place Enemy Away Independent Materia, and Luxiere got the third place Enemy Lure Independent Materia.

They stayed the night at the Farm, then set out in the morning for the Marsh, crossing the mucky area with disgust. Since they had to wait for the Midgar Zolom to show up, they didn't really rush, but they also didn't move too slowly just because of the smell. When the Midgar Zolom caught up to them, Zack deflected it and Rufus somehow felt he should summon Carbuncle to protect them—and Zack's one hit against it damaged it enough to cause it to cast Beta immediately, making them thankful for Carbuncle's Ruby Dust protection. Everyone who didn't already have Beta got it, then Luxiere finished it off and the group proceeded to the solid land just outside the Mine.

Except that Carbuncle wasn't going away, just staying around and quite happily following them quietly as it occasionally detoured to explore. Many of the group traded confused and amused expressions at the Summon's antics. Carbuncle resembled a small, cat-rabbit-fox-squirrel-like creature in an almost aquamarine color which had an abhorrent degree of energy. There was a red gem on its forehead which shimmered a bit, and its long ears had a somewhat wing-like appearance to them as they trailed down its back.

Outside the Mine, Zack headed back to the Farm while the others headed through the cave, letting the Ark Dragons use Flamethrower on everyone who didn't have it already. Fort Condor was a welcome rest that night, and a pass by the damaged section of the Reactor showed that it had been repaired. Their next stretch was the day and a half to Junon from Fort Condor, which was largely uneventful, though they managed to find a Zemzelett and use Manipulate on it so it would cast White Wind on them. With that accomplished, they had retrieved everything they needed to in that area, so after camping out one night, their arrival in Junon was welcome.

Eden remembered to change Aeris' appearance as well, and decided to make her blond with green-gold eyes so she would look like his sister. The others were surprised by the change the coloring had on her, even with nothing else changing—the pair could really have been related. The disguise also meant she went completely undetected as they walked through Junon and made their way up to the Presidential Suite so they could rest for that day and overnight. The following day, Rufus had a video conference with his father, so they also stayed there that day, though later in the day, Eden, Genesis, and Rufus went down to the underwater Junon Reactor to see if there were any interesting Materia—and they found the Hades Summon. Eden was still shocked by any 'ghosts' they found on their travels, this time ghost ships in the underwater passage to the Reactor.

The following morning, the ninth, they left on the usual ship to Costa del Sol and stayed there overnight so they'd be ready for the next leg of the trip the next day. From Costa del Sol, they made their way down to the beach outside of town, mainly led by Eden. It didn't take them long to find a Beachplug to get Big Guard by using Manipulate, so they headed for the Corel Mountain pass, camping in the grasslands just past the pass exit that night. The next day, they reached the desert and found a Harpy to get Aqualung from, and got to Corel around dark.

The town was mostly rebuilt, and the villagers greeted Eden happily, as did the members of Gaia's Refuge who were there to finish up the rebuilding. When Eden asked about Nanaki and Deneh, they said the pair had gone to Gongaga because the desert heat was hard on their sensitive noses. The rest of the blond Turks' companions were puzzled by the discussion, but with the Inn being rebuilt, they were able to stay there overnight.

The next morning, they set out on the way south again, crossing the second bridge he had made—which was still holding up—and into the jungle. On the way, they came across the Touch Mes and were able to get Frog Song—and they were all quite thankful for Carbuncle's protection against being turned into a frog, as it had just not vanished of its own accord yet and Rufus hadn't had to re-Summon it since the first time.

At Gongaga, the rest of the group stopped to watch in bemusement as two creatures like mountain lions with orange-red fur jumped on the blond Turk and licked his face while he laughed. When the two had calmed down, Eden got back to his feet—just in time for Nanaki to ask, "So, why are you back here? I thought you were done in the area, and this doesn't look like a vacation."

"It talks!" Genesis, Luxiere, and Freyra gaped, even as Ruluf, Cissnei, Rufus, and Aeris stared in amazement and Kunzel chuckled.

"How rude," Deneh glared at the group.

"Is it normal for people to react any other way?" Eden asked her dryly.

"Not really. Still..." she sighed.

Nanaki then asked again, "So, why are you here again so soon, Ed?"

"A world tour to collect Enemy Skills—and apparently any Materia I didn't get the last time I traveled," the blond replied dryly. "We have to head to Rocket Town for this leg of the trip so we can get the airship to go to the last three locations on this continent, but we still have stops before then."

"World tour? How far—I mean, are you even going to the Northern Crater?" Deneh asked worriedly.

"We are," Rufus replied.

"We're supposed to, too. Minerva said so," Aeris added.

Both cat's eyes widened before Deneh said, "That won't be safe." She shook her head, then asked, "But you're determined, aren't you?"

"That was the point of the trip," Rufus answered.

Again, the two traded looks, then Nanaki asked, "Would you let us travel with you from here on?"

"We are—undecided," Rufus replied cautiously. "We return to places such as Midgar and Junon between legs of the journey, and we couldn't possibly keep you hidden from some very unsavory scientists in those places. I don't know if we could find a place to leave you, either. And as you seem to be heat-based—" He paused to motion at their burning tail tips. "—the cold places may be decidedly harmful to your well-being."

"I don't know that it will make a difference. Is there a way we can find out how cold affects us?" Nanaki asked.

"We have to cross through the Nibel Mountains, and it's winter now," Aeris offered, making Rufus glare at her. "If you joined us at least through the mountains, you'd have a decent idea. Of course, winter in the Northern Crater—even high summer there—is twice as bad as the Nibel Mountains in winter."

"I don't think—" Rufus began, only for Genesis to cut him off.

"If you want to travel with us for a bit and prove that you can pull your own weight, we'll have a valid reason to keep you two around. And I have questions for you," the red haired man said with an eager grin.

"Now hold on," Rufus cut in sharply. He then stopped as Dark Nation wandered up to Nanaki, sniffed his nose—and the black Blood Taste's tentacle and tail both began waving happily. Rufus sighed as the two mountain lions traded confused looks, then relented, "If we're going to have this trial, we'll need introductions. Eden?"

"Right," the blond grinned right along with most of the humans in the group. "Everyone, meet Deneh, the female, and Nanaki, the male. Deneh, Nanaki, meet—" He proceeded to name all their traveling companions, which was eleven 'people' (not counting himself), and remembered to add Carbuncle to the list at the last minute as it hopped onto Dark Nation's back from—somewhere no one was quite sure of.

The Summon gave the pair a wave, then landed on Nanaki's back—and started eagerly asking him questions about his race (Nanaki barely had the time to reply that they were called the Moto Tribe), much to everyone's surprise, as it was the first time the Summon had actively spoken with them. Nanaki's ears flattened as he gave an unhappy rumble and a look which clearly asked, 'Why me?'

Eden gave Rufus a look, so the older blond sighed and said, "Carbuncle, do shut up for the moment. You'll have time later to ask your new friend more questions." Carbuncle fell silent.

When silence fell, Eden faced the two lions again and said, "We were going to stay here overnight and leave in the morning, heading for Cosmo Canyon. With the two of you, I think we'll skip the Chocobos—and Libby will be able to record the projection Elder Bugenhagen has since we'll now stop there overnight."

"That will be sufficient," Nanaki agreed.

"Thank you for agreeing," Deneh added. "The Inn here is rebuilt now, too, so you should be able to stay. It might be a bit of a tight fit, though."

"We have tents, so I'm sure a few of us will be able to camp out as long as we have the space to do so," Luxiere said, sounding a bit amused.

"I don't mind that, either," Freyra offered with a grin.

"Does that mean we have more friends now?" Stray Hope asked curiously from where she had perched on Rufus' shoulder.

"For now," Rufus agreed, sounding a bit tired suddenly.

"Yay!" the white robotic cat cheered, then hopped over to land on Nanaki's back as well to begin babbling to him, barely giving him a chance to reply. It was just the same as Carbuncle, who had also begun asking questions again, without giving him a chance to answer. The others chuckled in wry amusement as the mountain lion sighed.

"This way..." Deneh said as she tried not to laugh, then turned to lead the group to the Inn.

They stayed there overnight—Luxiere and Freyra stayed outside in tents with the robots, Carbuncle, Nanaki, and Deneh (the two males shared and the two females shared) while Dark Nation slept by the Inn door—then headed for Cosmo Canyon in the morning. That night, they all slept in tents, and the following evening, they reached Cosmo Canyon, where the perplexed townspeople welcomed them a little warily.

Eden went with Nanaki—and Libby—to see the Elder while Deneh showed the others to the Inn. Aeris and Genesis ended up at the Cosmo Candle for part of the night, asking the villagers about it and the two large cats' tail tips, but Kunzel found a place out of the way on one of the upper levels to sit and stare at the stars.

As Eden was leaving Elder Bugenhagen's home and heading back towards the Inn, he saw Kunzel sitting on the ledge and realized he had _never_ seen him without his helmet on. However, right then, his helmet was off and sitting beside him on the ground, which was really the only reason Eden knew it was him—he was the only one in SOLDIER who pretty much obsessively wore a helmet. Curiously, the blond Turk silently joined him, peering at the older man intently as he slipped into a comfortable sitting position a few feet from him, but definitely outside his view. The man's hair was black, shorter on the left than the right, and with his bangs falling to the right side of his face down to the chin. The most remarkable thing about his features was how they were obviously at least partially Wutain, but they were also oddly delicate for such a strong man in a combat role. His eyes were the same bright blue as all SOLDIERs (except Sephiroth) had.

"So, what do you think of my heritage?" Kunzel asked quietly, gaze still on the stars.

"Am I supposed to think something?" Eden asked in reply, blinking in mild surprise at the eighteen-ish-year-old's awareness of his surroundings. That was a Turk skill normally, and pretty rare in SOLDIER.

Kunzel was silent for a minute before giving a wry grin and saying, "I guess with the war over, it's moot to you. Some of the SOLDIERs still have hard feelings and tend to take it out on people with Wutain looks. I look Wutain enough to suffer for that, so I don't show my face."

"The last time I checked, hiding made things worse, not better," Eden commented.

"Only when it's Turks, since they go after what's hidden," Kunzel replied in amusement. "I've never particularly had a problem with you lot—I even tried out for the Turks once upon a time—but SOLDIER...Some are great, like Zack and the three at the top, but even Luxiere gave me strange looks until I started wearing my helmet all the time. I think they've forgotten what I look like under it, if they ever knew. It might be better this time around because of Sora, but...I'm not brave enough to try yet."

After a silence, the blond asked, "What made you go for SOLDIER instead of the Turks?"

The older man was quiet for a minute before sighing and saying, "Do you know about the firebombing of Kalm?"

"Vaguely. (4) You aren't going to tell me you lived there, are you?" Eden asked warily.

Shaking his head, the SOLDIER gave a wryly amused smile and answered, "I lived in Wutai and Gongaga for much of my young life. That's part of why Zack and I get along so well—we knew each other when we were kids. But my family history is a bizarre one and I also had family who lived in Kalm, who I stayed with for a few months every few years. I knew Felicia when she was a kid, too. Then the firebombing happened while I was trying out for the Turks...I don't know the details, but I know Veld worked very hard to cover it up. After that, I couldn't just...pretend everything was fine. That's why I couldn't stay with them after, so I went over to SOLDIER. I had to wait five months between, and by then, Zack was applying, so it just seemed fitting. I'd also never been so thankful for Zack's cheer and open acceptance before, either."

"If Kalm had such an effect on you, why did you stay with Shinra?" the sixteen-year-old asked in confusion.

"Leaving would have been the easy way out, you mean?" Kunzel asked with sad amusement.

"Not really. It's just—normally when someone hurts someone else, the one on the receiving end would avoid the harmer—Shinra—as much as possible. Or exact revenge, but against the Turks, I don't think that would have been very practical." The words made Kunzel chuckle with something like mirth. "What I said wasn't that funny," Eden pointed out dryly over the black haired man's chuckles.

Giving his hand a wave as he got his chuckles under control, Kunzel said, "In my personal experience, people bent on revenge or paranoia rarely do what's practical. As for avoidance...Maybe this will sound callous, but it wasn't really Kalm's destruction which bothered me, it was how it was covered up. Towns get destroyed all the time, whether it's by natural disasters, monster attacks, some sort of accident, or a planned attack—I mean, think about Corel and Gongaga. People die. I understand that, and while I would prefer deliberate attacks didn't happen, all the rest still will.

"Exactly how would I get revenge on a rockslide crushing a town or a tidal wave washing it away? How would I avoid the natural cycle of the world? In the name of being brutally practical, what happened to Kalm actually _could_ have been an accident or not part of Veld's plan."

With a sigh, the SOLDIER went on, "But whatever happened or why it did, the destruction was one thing...The cover-up was another entirely. Those people were never sent on properly, their existences erased just because the President didn't want any bad publicity, and I think Veld shut his feelings down because the President ordered _him_ to make his home, his wife and daughter, vanish like they had never existed. The Infantry were the ones who firebombed Kalm, but the Turks had the soul-crushing work. I'm a lot of things, but not...I can't pretend people I knew never existed, and I can't justify making them disappear. As soon as that happened, I knew I could never be a Turk, because those were the kinds of things I'd have to do eventually."

He shifted and lifted his helmet into his lap to stare down at the three infrared lights glowing on the front of it. "On the other hand, Fort Condor wouldn't still be there if Shinra hadn't sent them Infantry and SOLDIERs to fend off a monster attack several years ago, and neither would Gongaga or Corel. Mideel would have fallen into the Mako chasm they have outside town if Shinra hadn't picked up all their homes and moved them over to stable land. Banora would have been obliterated in a firestorm without teams of Infantry sent to fend off the flames. Icicle Inn would have frozen over without the power provided by the Reactors, which also give them heat during long blizzards. Bone Village almost collapsed under a rockslide and Shinra rebuilt it. (5) Is that _really_ something I should be ashamed to be part of, or that I should avoid?"

Eden stared at him with wide eyes for a minute before nodding and saying, "I guess staying with Shinra would still have been valid, then, even with the bad they've done. And now I know we _have_ to have a viable alternate power supply for places like Icicle Inn in case something happens to the Reactors. After what happened in Gongaga, it's actually possible any town with a Reactor could find it destroyed, especially with Fuhito still at large. I almost hope we find him on this trip."

"Be careful what you wish for, Eden," Kunzel sighed, but gave the younger blond an amused smile. "But it is nice to know Felicia seems to have her head on straight now and is helping the _right_ way. Hopefully, she'll have a viable power supply Icicle Inn will be able to use soon."

The Turk blinked, then blinked again and asked, "How long have you known?"

"Since before AVALANCHE disbanded," Kunzel replied, grinning in amusement. "I just haven't re-introduced myself to her. I don't even know if she'll remember me from so long ago—we were only thirteen when I last saw her."

"You won't know unless you go introduce yourself," Eden said wryly, then yawned and got up. "Thanks for talking with me. I appreciate it. Good night."

"Thanks for hearing me out without crying 'traitor'," Kunzel answered with a smile. "Rest well, Eden. You really need to do more of that."

"Try that when your charge periodically tries to evade you by climbing out his bedroom window in the middle of the night," the younger man replied in amusement, giving a wave and heading on his way back to the Inn, please to hear the other man laugh as he went.

 **Notes:**

No, based on this story line, Barret would have ZERO reason for joining them, so he couldn't be added to the party. In FFVII, Bugenhagen actually ENCHOURAGES Nanaki to go with the group, however, so I don't see that he would do anything differently now, even if it IS about 7 years earlier.

(1) Suicide is what I'm calling L4 Suicide because there are no 'levels' in real life, but the Enemy Skill instead works based on increments of ability; at certain increments, it does huge damage, but in the in-between spaces, it does none.

(2) This would be before the grandmother, husband, and wife died, leaving only the grandfather and two much younger kids at the farm. The young girl in the stable comments that her grandfather and brother are swindling people since the deaths of the grandmother and her parents, so her mother and father here are being more fair, since they're still alive—the family deaths had been fairly recent in 0007-0008, when the main game takes place. I felt, given the main game's price of a Chocobo Lure (10,000 gil) an most average Materia prices, that 3,300 gil wouldn't be an unreasonable price for it.

(3) Multi-Cut was originally Double-Cut, but the Materia doesn't only allow two rapid attacks, so I'm adjusting the name. This I kept in because most people can't strike twice or four times at super-speed, but someone with that ability wouldn't need the Materia (Sephiroth and Felicia, possibly a few others). As such, the people who use it are those who haven't been able to develop it naturally, like with the Steal Materia.

(4) When Eden says 'vaguely' here, the extent of his knowledge is that, as a Turk, they all have the basic knowledge the firebombing happened, unlike most of the general population. That's where Ed's knowledge ends, though—he didn't actually know about the Turks' or Infantry's role in it, the coverup, or anything else, until Kunzel told him. He's choosing to set it aside as something he can't do anything about anyway—it happened long before he joined the Turks, after all, and it's not like he can raise the dead. They're already working towards dealing with the President, too.

(5) While these reasons are made-up, there has to be some good things Shinra has done to make people accept their presence, and just providing a power supply wouldn't have been enough to justify what people let them get away with. This goes a long way towards justifying the power they have. Sure, they have self-serving purposes for it, but at least not EVERYTHING they do is actually destructive, either.


	14. 12-From Cosmo(s) to Rocket

**A/N:** The last poll for my FMA:B/FFVII crossover is now completely closed and removed, along with all previous notes for them! As such, here's the compilation of the poll data:

The first was a flop and removed from the system.

The second was on characters from Spira readers wanted to see me develop. The 5 top picks were: Unsent Rikku, Unsent Tidus, Unsent Yuna, Unsent Wakka, and Descendant of Yuna, so those ones will figure pretty prominently into the story once they're introduced. There was also a list of 'may-be-used' characters: Unsent Lulu, Unsent Kimahri, Descendant of Rikku, Descendant of Paine, and Other Unsent (potential of Auron and/or Jecht), but I make no guarantees.

On the above-noted:

First, Wakka will be different because a guy as laid-back as him would need a really compelling reason to stay around.

Second, other than some adaptation for Wakka, you'll have to let me know if I'm presenting any of the Unsent completely the wrong way, because I haven't played through the whole FFX/X-2 games and don't know the character personalities well.

Thanks again for your help, the 5 who voted!

As usual, if there are comments, questions, or offers of further votes, please let me know! The poll will be kept until I've completed both part 2's of this story in case someone wants to see it.

From Cosmo(s) to Rocket

Morning came all too soon, and Eden was woken by a decidedly chipper Genesis sitting on the edge of the bed. "Did you get them to tell you about the Cosmo Candle?" the man asked curiously when he saw that the blond Turk was awake.

"Only that it doesn't have fuel and doesn't go out, and it grows or shrinks based on the amount of Lifestream the Planet has."

"Yeah. Did you know it used to take up almost the whole platform it's on now? As in, there was no space for people to sit up there?"

"No, that I didn't know."

"It started shrinking significantly not long after the Reactors were set up. One Reactor didn't do much, but when there were three, which was about thirty years ago, it began shrinking much faster. I was looking at it last night and decided to see if I could manipulate it the way I do other kinds of fires—and I could. I walked safely right into it, and looked at the ground in the middle of it, where you'd never see it unless it was about to go out. Here's what I saw there."

With the words, Genesis offered Eden a sheet of paper—with a complex array drawn on it, a single array using a seven-point basis and clearly one in free-form. It had no similarity to any other array they had ever seen in the Materia, its closest relative being the arrays Zirconaide worked on. On the other hand, Eden had seen arrays with a similar complexity in Amestris, such as the one he'd used to try to bring his mother back to life or the ones Marcoh had worked on. What it largely differed in was what it was meant to manipulate, because there were very few of the 'soul' key elements in it and no 'human' or 'living' ones. The references to 'soul' elements were in reference to the 'gauge' points of the flame size, not to manipulate the soul energy.

Frowning, Eden gazed at the array and commented absently, "It looks like one from my home...The Cetra definitely had full-form alchemy the way we knew it...Why did they stop? Why did they lose the data? I don't think Minerva was the one who did it, but then again, I think there was a time when she also mostly used free-form arrays, and she only stopped when...people started misusing them...Maybe that's also part of why we can't access that temple Lazard mentioned..."

"The big question actually is, will that help us with the Zirconaide issue?" Genesis cut in to Eden's musing dryly, pointing at the paper.

"I'm not entirely sure, but it might. Libby?" Eden called, and the dog-rabbit hopped onto the bed.

"What do you need?" she asked curiously. Genesis gave an amused grin.

Laying the paper down for her, Eden said, "Save this as the 'Cosmo Candle Array', please, and store it with Zirconaide's data."

"Okay!" she agreed happily, hopping a few times, then stilling for a few moments. "Saved! Anything else?" she asked as she looked back at him.

"For now, we're good. You recorded a lot last night, too, didn't you?" he asked her wryly.

"Yup! Elder Bugenhagen had lots to show me, not just the solar system projection," Libby agreed. "He made the file names public, so you can ask me what they are, but you'll have to use the password to view all but one of them."

"One is straight text data?" Eden asked in surprise.

"A few are, but that one was about a woman named Ifalna. He said Aeris might want to find out, too, since—if his memory still works, Aeris is Ifalna's daughter," Libby explained. "Just in case she wanted to 'view' it alone, he thought it could be public, and in the meantime, no one would think to ask me for data about Gast's travels."

Genesis and Eden traded confused looks before Eden asked, "So what does a Shinra scientist who has been dead for years have to do with Aeris' birth mother?"

"Professor Gast Faremis is her father," the dog-rabbit robot replied.

With a deep sigh, Eden asked, "Could you go get Aeris for me, please, Genesis?"

"Okay, if she's up. We were both up pretty late last night, but she doesn't have the enhancements I do, so she may still be sleeping," Genesis agreed, rising.

"If she is, we'll worry about having that discussion with Libby later," the blond nodded, and got up to get ready for the day as the older man left.

Several minutes later, while Eden was using his arm as a height pole for Libby to jump over, the door opened and Aeris asked, "You wanted to see me, Ed?"

He snatched Libby out of the air, then said to her, "Aeris, apparently Elder Bugenhagen knew your parents and gave what he knew to Libby. Did you want to hear about them now or wait, and do you want to be alone or with someone else? The data is public, so you don't need me for anything except knowing what to ask Libby to tell you about."

The girl's green eyes widened before she slowly moved over to sit on the edge of the bed, folding her hands in her lap as she stared down at them. Eden and Libby went back to playing with testing the height limit of Libby's jumps—she was already jumping over four feet, which was remarkable for her height. It gave them something to do so they could give Aeris her space while she thought about what she wanted to do with what Libby had been told, and it would hopefully help her feel more comfortable so she could make her choice. Eden would have encouraged her to find out, since that would have been part of her 'walking forward', but he really felt it was a decision she had to make for herself.

Finally, she asked, "Is there a reason no one wanted to just rush out and tell me about them?"

"Did your birth mother ever tell you about your father? Anything?" Eden asked in reply as he turned to face her. She shook her head. "I see. In that case, you may not like what you hear, because he was a Shinra scientist—no, not Hojo, before you ask."

Aeris sighed, then nodded and said, "Stay, please? I'll hear it now, since I have always wondered about him. Is he still alive?"

"When's your birthdate?"

"February seventh, nineteen eighty-five."

"In that case, he's been dead since you were twenty days old."

"...Oh. So he probably didn't hand me over to Hojo."

"It would be more likely Hojo killed him because he wouldn't. At least, from the records I saw in Shinra Manor in Nibelheim, he seemed to be—a lot more fair and saw people as human, even when they were participating in an experiment."

She nodded, then asked him, "So, what do I need to ask for to find out about him?"

Facing Libby, Eden said, "Libby, tell us about Gast's travels, please." He sat beside Aeris and set the robot on the floor in front of the two of them.

With a nod, Libby said, "Gast Faremis had a falling out with Shinra and left to travel sometime around nineteen eighty. He visited a few different places before he stopped in Cosmo Canyon, looking for more information about the Ancients. An old tablet had called them the Cetra, but it didn't have much more than that for information. This was one of the best places he'd be able to try to find out more. At the time when he came here, a woman named Ifalna was here (1), and he found out she was the last living true Cetra. He wanted to know more, but he also didn't want to stay in one place too long, so in the name of his studies, he asked her to go with him.

"Gast planned to run some tests and experiments, but those seemed to be simple things like what skills she had which were different from normal humans. The people here had been a little worried, but she chose to go, and Elder Bugenhagen was one of the few who realized his interest in her was more than scientific and hers in him was similarly more than just curiosity. They sent letters every month until Gast's death. The last word he got from the two was that they had settled in Icicle Inn, become a couple, married, and had a daughter, a little girl named Aeris Faremis. Even the letters Ifalna sent back apart from Gast's said they were mainly involved in his scientific studies and they were honestly not very intrusive, but they were slowly falling in love. He thinks they were in love, and he knew they both loved you, Aeris, by the time you were born."

After a moment of silence, Aeris leaned her shoulder on Eden's and closed her eyes. She wasn't crying, but she didn't seem to be able to fully process what Libby had said, either.

Eden asked the robot, "Was there anything else?"

"Only copies of their letters—Ifalna's and Gast's to Elder Bugenhagen—but those would need the password to view," Libby answered.

Aeris shook her head and murmured, "Not right now."

"Then that's all, Libby. Thanks," the Turk told her. Libby nodded and trotted out of the room.

The two just sat together for nearly half an hour before Aeris shook herself and said, "Let's go eat so we can head out soon." She was smiling a little sadly as she grabbed Eden's hand and pulled him from the room with her.

FoW

The group was a little late setting out that morning, but they still made good time and were able to camp at the river. Nanaki and Deneh had joined them for the trip north as they had said, but as they neared Nibelheim the following day, the snows came in on them and the temperature dropped drastically. Genesis began using his magic on-and-off to keep the air around them reasonably warm, though still not as warm as most of them were used to. It wore him out to do it for such a large group, though, so they used it sparingly in short bursts to warm up.

When they reached the Inn in Nibelheim, they were all grateful—especially when they found out Tseng had arranged winter supplies to be transported there for them, to be returned in Rocket Town before they started their initial short airship trip.

The ones who had Enemy Skill Materia had to search the area for a monster called a Jersey which had once lived in the Manor when it wasn't occupied, finding it in the woods just outside the rear fence of the plot the Manor had once stood on. The Jersey looked a great deal like old-fashioned weigh scales and gave an ability which registered as '?' on the Materia. Once they had gotten it, they returned to the Inn to sleep for the night, though Eden took some time to head over to Rayne's place to let her know he was okay and apologize for not keeping in touch. She was overjoyed to see him, but also scolded him for his complete lack of communication in any form with her. After securing a promise that he would write or phone her at least once a month, they had a very nice visit before he returned to the Inn to sleep.

First thing in the morning, they checked the weather forecast for the day. It was overcast but not with clouds dense enough to cause more than possible light flurries, so they agreed to head right into the mountains. Eden led them the path by the Mako Spring, which had only developed one Guard Plus Materia since he and Cloud had raided it—which he gave to Aeris—so they quickly headed on to the Reactor. It had been one of the ones Kunzel and Luxiere hadn't gotten to while looking for Enemy Skill Materia, so they went inside to see if there were any Materia of value to find there.

Last time, Eden had only gone into the science lab, not the heart of the Reactor, so it was likely they would find some valuable shards there. Sure enough, there were a number of Materia around the Reactor core, including multiples of the basic elements and healing Materia, a Manipulate, a Strength Plus, a Float, an All, and an Added Effect.

When Genesis opened the core to see if any very rare Materia had developed there, he could see a blue glow from inside. Reaching in, he found a Materia forming in his hand before he'd even touched the rather large, blue Materia and pulled back in surprise as he stared at the red orb he now held.

"What did you find?" Freyra asked curiously. She had just been observing the others as she wasn't particularly interested in collecting what was there.

"Eden, do you have a record of a Bahamut ZERO?" Genesis asked, turning to hold up the Summon Materia.

With a frown, the blond Turk shook his head and said, "Not from Shinra's databank. Libby, did Bugenhagen tell you about any other Materia?"

"There were a few he talked about," Libby agreed. "There were ones called 'Huge Materia' which could create new Materia in the right circumstances. Three were ones which created 'Master Materia' of the type matching each one's color—yellow, green, and red—and the last one, the blue one, gave a special reward for taking two powerful Summons to it. The details weren't clear about which ones or how to create the Master ones since no one has ever done it before, or if they did, they didn't record how. What Summons do you have, Genesis?"

"Ifrit, Phoenix, Alexander, Bahamut, and Neo Bahamut," Genesis blinked.

"And you got Bahamut ZERO?" Eden asked with a small frown.

"Yes," the red haired man agreed.

"It's probably the Bahamuts," the blond said.

"That makes sense," Genesis agreed with a quirky grin. "Sometimes the simplest, most obvious answer really is the right one, I guess. Did you want it, Eden?"

"No. I still can't stand Bahamut after the incident in Cosmo Canyon way back when," Eden replied, making a face. "Go ahead and keep it."

"What incident?" Ruluf asked in confusion. Most of the others looked puzzled as well.

It was Nanaki who finally explained, and Genesis who clarified the difference between amnesia and memory suppression (which was what Eden had done to himself). Freyra and Ruluf had been aware of the incident in abstract before then, so now had more details on what had happened, which they were grateful for—though they also wondered why Eden didn't participate in the discussion personally.

They were interrupted in their discussion as Cait Sith piped up and said, "Ye may want to get moving, otherwise a storm will come in."

Everyone stared silently for a moment, then Genesis chuckled and said, "Thanks, Reeve, and Cait Sith, of course! Well, everyone, you heard the man. Let's head out if we've got all the Materia now!"

They did, so they left the Reactor and continued down the mountain, beating the heavy snows of the storm by about an hour despite being attacked by more than one Dragon. The first battle, which had been against a pair of Dragons, Genesis didn't involve himself in, but the second battle apparently pissed him off enough to just obliterate the Dragon in one blow, leaving the others staring in shocked awe.

While they had reached the plains leading to Rocket Town, they still had to go around a section of the mountain range, so it was agreed they would camp below the snow line at the foot of the mountains overnight. As it had turned out, the two large cats with them were both skilled in combat and traveled very well. The cold had little to no effect on them, though extreme heat had an unpleasant drying effect on their noses which was irritating but not debilitating. With fur coats and tails which burned magically rather than physically, they had been built to adapt to most climates.

In the morning, they set out around the steep-sided arm of the mountain range, camped again that night, then kept crossing the plains in the direction of Rocket Town. Because the last day of travel was much easier than getting through the mountains, they felt up to the challenge of getting the skill Chocobuckle from the wild Chocobos in the area as they walked, so used the Chocobo Lure to attract them. Suicide turned out to be a good way to startle the Chocobos into using Chocobuckle before they ran away, but only one person could get it at a time because it only hit the one who attacked it, assuming the Chocobo didn't just run away as soon as it got hit. The result meant they needed to run into several dozen and each person in need of it had to take turns hitting the Chocobos as they came up. Freyra was the only one who had the skill already, so was the one who taught the others how best to get it.

They reached Rocket Town a few hours before dark and went to the Inn to eat before looking around the town—if it could be called that. There was a small Shinra outpost there, which was where they returned their winter gear to, then checked out what was there. It was a cross between a mechanic's or engineer's wet dream and a small town built up on the fly to support the construction of some sort of device which had barely been built so far.

One side of the town had an airstrip and several hangars, including one very large landing pad for the Highwind, which was actually a brand new Shinra airship built with some helicopter-like functions, such as take-off and landing ability. When Eden had been on board to travel from Wutai to Midgar, that had been its second trip after its maiden voyage to Junon. One of the buildings by the hangars was a kind of barracks and apartment building for the mechanics and engineers working there.

Because the town was something of an afterthought once the area had been turned into an airstrip, there really wasn't much there. It had several homes, but there was only one store which sold some of everything, the Inn, and the most prominent and well-built home in the town which belonged to Cid Highwind. To Ed's surprise, the store had _three_ Materia he didn't have already, Barrier, Exit, and Throw, so he bought one of each. When the group met up again soon after, they headed to Cid's to let him know they were there and to work out their first flight the next day.

A brown haired woman answered the door when they knocked, and Rufus said, "We'd like to see Captain Highwind to discuss our flight plan for tomorrow. I am Rufus Shinra and these are my escorts."

"Oh, he's been expecting you," she said with a smile, opening the door wide. "Come in. Can I get you tea or something else to drink?"

"Tea is fine," the President's son answered, following her as Eden and Genesis flanked him. The others followed them, though Libby and Stray Hope opted to ride on Deneh's and Dark Nation's backs since Nanaki already had Cait Sith and Carbuncle on his.

She led them to the living room as she said, "Cid, Mr. Shinra has arrived. I'll be back shortly with tea." The woman then headed through a side door as Cid looked up from the papers on the coffee table, and Eden could tell right away that he was the same man he'd met in the room with Felicia on their return trip from Wutai to Midgar.

Cid eyed the group for a long moment, his eyes meeting Eden's with recognition, and the Captain just had to comment, "Ya sure do get around, dontcha, blondie?"

"I do, and don't call me that," Eden replied flatly.

With a smirk-like grin, the man kept examining the group, his eyes falling on Cissnei and Aeris with puzzled worry. "You marchin' around with girls who could get hurt on a battlefield for some reason in particular, or do I just call ya a rat bastard and leave it at that?"

"Why you—" Rufus began with a dark glare.

It was Freyra who saved them by saying sweetly, "Oh, if you mean Cissnei and Aeris, Cissnei is a Turk and has been one for over a year already, and Aeris is our single strongest healer. We have others skilled in magic, but she gets the singularly greatest effect with healing. And we're not the sort who think women are weak and need to be hidden away to take care of the home. Imply that again and I'll personally castrate you with a helping of buckshot."

"Now, now, Freyra, I don't think he meant it that way," Aeris said kindly as Cid gaped at the woman. "I think he meant exactly what he said—we're both very young and he didn't want us to get hurt. He doesn't seem to think you don't belong here, after all."

"Yeah, Cid is just foul-mouthed worse than anyone I know," Eden threw in dryly. "And doesn't seem to think much before he talks."

"Shut yer yap, ya brat," Cid growled at him.

"Proof positive," Eden commented with a wide grin at the others.

"Could we all stop arguing and discuss our plans for the flight tomorrow?" Nanaki cut in, causing complete silence as Cid stared at him.

The pilot's gaze moved to Deneh, then back to Nanaki for a moment before he asked, "What're you two doin' away from Cosmo Canyon? And what're your names since you decided to talk in front o' me?"

"You knew?" Nanaki asked in puzzlement.

"Heard ya a time or two when everyone thought I was sleeping," Cid shrugged. "Names?"

"I'm Nanaki, and she's Deneh," the male of the pair answered.

"Gotcha. You're fine with them girls traveling with ya?"

"Why shouldn't we be?" Deneh asked dryly. "Even Aeris manages to hold her own, and she was the least combat-capable when the others set out. We joined them only at Gongaga, where we were helping with the rebuilding, and she seems to do just as well now as the rest."

"Hmm..." Cid murmured, then gave a bit of a dismissing motion with his hand. "Fine, whatever wind catches yer sails."

 **Notes:**

(1) This is my headcanon, that Ifalna lived in Cosmo Canyon until she left with Gast. She definitely wasn't living in Icicle Inn or they wouldn't have had to 'retire' there because they already would have been there when he met her.


	15. 13-Caves

Caves

Since the previous discussion was apparently over to him, Cid began, "Tomorrow," then shut up as the brown haired woman who had let them in returned with tea for everyone. "Would ya stop that, woman?" he glared at her.

"Stop what? Being hospitable?" she asked in reply, her expression clearly annoyed. "I want to do it, so just let me. Besides, if it keeps you out of a bottle or the bottom of a mug, it's worth it." She then proceeded to pour cups for everyone, including the mountain lions, though she had the sense to just give Dark Nation a bowl of water.

Cid stared for a moment before giving his head a shake and looking at Rufus. "Shinra kid, have a seat so we can chat."

"If you _must_ call me something informal, call me Rufus," the President's son snapped, but sat down in a chair near Cid. "So, after speaking with Tseng, what have you worked out for our flight path?" He then tested the tea—and almost dropped the cup in surprise as he looked up at the woman. He told her reverently, "This is very good. Your name?"

"Shera Labradia (1)," she answered. "I'm one of the engineers working on the rocket the town was named for."

With a nod, Rufus told her, "If you're half the engineer you are a hostess, you must be skilled indeed. It's not a wonder you got a man to stop drinking."

Shera blushed, but lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "Tea and a little baking has always been a hobby of mine. I can't cook unless you like eating charcoal, though. It gives me something to do when I'm not working on the rocket plans."

"I see," the blond said with a small nod. "You should give serious thought to packaging and selling this tea—I can tell you right now most of Midgar and Junon will love it."

"Supplies permitting," Shera quipped with a small grin. "You need to discuss a flight plan?"

Rufus turned back to a smirking Cid, who said, "She always gets that reaction."

"And she has a point. The plan?" Rufus asked, sounding a bit amused.

"I'll tell ya right now, you can't go to all three places in one day. Not if you want to explore 'em, too, for treasure or whatever you're doing. The cave north of the Corel Mountains and the cave east of Cosmo're close enough ta maybe go to both the same day, but ye'll need another day for the Forest, just for the travel time alone. We ain't sure how long the Highwind'll run for on its power supply, so I don't want to push her too hard until we know the supply's working right. Problem is, it can't land in any of the places you want to go."

"We have Summons who can—and are willing—to take us back and forth from the airship to the ground," Genesis put in. "Not to travel any distance, but they've agreed to a short jaunt in exchange for some free time to explore."

Cid snorted, then said, "That's your lookout, then, an' I'll leave ya to it. Long as they don't damage my beauty, that is. You'll wish you hadn't been born if they damage the Highwind."

"They won't," the Commander replied evenly.

"Good to know," the other man agreed. "Now, when ya return from the Forest, your next trip is Wutai. I ain't got a retrieval time for you for that yet, but we've got a bit of an order for your island hopping afterwards—for the first part of it, at least. We've got two options. If you start at Cactus Island, you'd go to the temple island, Mideel, Banora, the cave northeast of Banora, Goblin Island, and Round Island. If ya go to Round Island first, you'd go the other way, to Goblin Island, the cave, Banora, Mideel, the temple island, and Cactus Island. All we need's your word on which way ya want to go."

"If I may?" Aeris asked. Rufus nodded to her, so she said, "Going to the Temple sooner means we can start trying to figure out how to get in sooner, and we already know that will be a challenge—the more we know sooner, the less time after we've visited the other places we'll have to wait while we work it out."

"That's true, if there's a place you can't just get into," Deneh agreed.

Rufus nodded and said, "That would be the most practical, I believe." His gaze moved back to Cid. "The Cactus Island option is more to our liking."

With a nod, the other man agreed, "Tseng thought that, too. I'll let him know so we can do the rest of that planning. Now, if that was everything, get outta my house and get back here after breakfast tomorrow morning so we can get our asses outta here right quick. Got it?"

Shera sighed, but Rufus rose from his seat with a glare as he said, "We'll see you in the morning, then."

Once the group had returned to the Inn, Rufus scowled, "That man is insufferable! Are you telling me we'll have to deal with him every time we travel on board an airship?"

"Pretty much," Genesis agreed. "He was worse when he was perpetually drunk, but he's the best pilot and navigator Shinra has ever seen, and one of our best engineers besides Urban Development and Weapons hires."

The President's son sighed as he said, "I'm starting to understand how my father could have become such a callous ass if these were the sorts of people he had—has—to deal with daily..."

"What did you think Heidegger was?" Kunzel asked quietly from where he'd stopped by the door, making the others look at him in mild surprise. It saddened Eden to see him with his helmet all the time again after their talk in Cosmo Canyon. "He doesn't have the same roughness or habit of swearing Cid does, but he has a vicious temper and is prone to beating Infantrymen when he's angry. He only doesn't touch the Turks and SOLDIER for random abuse because we _would_ kill him, and would most likely get away with it. He'd have been beating on Tseng for sure if he thought he could get away with it because he loathes Wutains with a passion. Word through the grapevine hints that he's not happy with the President's decision on just how to end the war—by basically letting Wutai remain untouched and without any real Shinra supervision—so he's been beating on the Infantrymen a lot more than he had been. Especially ones with Wutain backgrounds."

Rufus was silent for a long moment before saying quietly, "I see. Cid is a great deal of bluster, but not physically abusive to others—he just doesn't seem to have a filter between his brain and mouth. Heidegger is violent and endangers people's lives. Now I know why Tseng has never attended a private meeting with him, even if he'll discuss things on the phone with him."

Freyra and Ruluf traded looks, Luxiere glared, Genesis nodded, and the others just watched in quiet concern. After a long silence, Rufus sighed and said, "Let's go to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day."

They did, waking when the Innkeeper knocked on their doors to tell them breakfast was almost ready. It didn't take them long to prepare and head down to the main room to eat, after which they headed back to Cid's. He was wearing a spear in a sheath on his back as he finished his tea, then led them to the Highwind, where the crew was getting it ready for take-off. Everyone got on board and began exploring as Cid and the crew took their places on the bridge and the Highwind took off. Their first trip east from Rocket Town took them to the far side of a river in a half-rocky, half-desert terrain the airship couldn't land on, a trip which took about two hours. Instead, it took up a hover position and lowered the ladder as far as possible, at which point, Genesis told Eden to summon Alexander.

Since the blond had never summoned it before, he had no idea what would appear, but it shocked him to see a fairly large, armored-machine-like 'knight' with steam jets and a veritable stair-like design. It stood at about twenty feet tall, though it looked like it wasn't standing on its legs, it was only kneeling on them (which allowed its fists to sit on the ground without it hunching over much), so it was probably a fair bit taller. Being metal, having people walk on it wasn't likely to bother it, but the wind currents caused by the Highwind hovering in one place stood a chance of knocking them off Alexander while they made their way down its arms. To solve that problem, the Holy Summon sprouted large, white wings (2) and held them in a way which created a protective tunnel the humans (and their other companions) could travel to the ground safely through.

With that, they were able to reach the ground and make their way the short distance to the cave in the nearby mountain. The cave was riddled with Mako crystal flakes, they all saw as soon as they stepped inside, the most prominent color being yellow-ish. One side of the cave seemed to be a dry Mako Spring, but there was something yellow shining off to the left of them in the middle of the floor. When Rufus moved over to it and picked it up, they could all tell it was a Materia he said was called Mime (3). It looked like there were a few places in the cave where there was a half-formed Materia as well, but they weren't developed enough to take.

Since there was nothing else there—not even monsters to fight inside—they returned to Alexander and returned to the ship, though Deneh, Nanaki, and Dark Nation all had quite the jump to get back onto the airship, and while the two mountain lions managed to 'climb' the ladder after a fashion, they needed to retrieve a hoist for Dark Nation. They could all get down easily enough because they could survive a fall from a greater height than a human, but the other way was much more difficult. Eden told Alexander to have fun exploring for a bit, then joined the others as Kunzel headed for the bridge to let Cid know they could head south at that point.

The Highwind turned southwest to fly to the portion of the Nibel Range which ran south all the way to the southern end of the Cosmo Canyon region. It was in those mountains where their next stop was, and they reached the area where the cave east of Cosmo Canyon was in about two and a half hours (they had recently eaten lunch on board the airship), but it took them another half-hour or so of flying around before they found the mouth of the cave they needed, partially hidden behind a waterfall as it was. It had a platform outside it which would barely be large enough for Genesis to summon his Alexander onto so they could reach the cave, but any of their other options for fair-sized Summons were even larger and wouldn't have fit on it at all. As such, Genesis summoned Alexander in a way which allowed the being's fists to rest nearest the cave entrance and to either side of it.

Getting down proceeded in much the same way that time as it had the previous time, except that getting the last step to the ground could only go inward because the edge of the platform was to the outside edges of Alexander's fisted hands. They proceeded into the cave as they reached the ground because they knew the next people would need space to step down as well, gathering at the edge of the pool in the central chamber of the cave. Up to the point where they reached the pool, the cave had looked fairly normal, but that chamber was clearly highly _un_ usual.

It was filled with huge, blue Mako Crystals sprouting from the ground, from in the 'water', growing on the stone pillars riddling the rather large cavern, but only the area they were in was accessible. The pool could have been taken as water, except that it emitted its own glow, somewhat dark and somewhat malignant—no 'water' source would have felt malignant unless it was either tainted or not water. In the middle of the pool was a massive Crystal which gave off a golden-like glow—and which surrounded a brown haired woman wearing a white, tank-like top and a white skirt.

"That's Lucrecia Crescent!" Genesis gaped.

"She wanted to die, but Jenova wouldn't let her..." Aeris murmured in a dazed voice, making the others stare at her and the glassy expression she wore. "When she realized that, she crystallized herself here, and doesn't know how to get out again..."

As Aeris started to take a step towards the pool, Ruluf reached out to grab her shoulder and pull her back. He then found he had to keep his hand there so she didn't try to walk forward again. " _Don't_ walk in that...stuff. Whatever it is."

"It's stagnant Mako," Genesis filled in, making a disgusted face. "She definitely shouldn't touch it, let alone walk in it.

"She shouldn't walk in _any_ Mako, stagnant or not, because she'd get Mako poisoning," Cissnei pointed out dryly. "But is the Doctor even still alive in there?"

"Apparently," Eden sighed, knowing Aeris was right or she wouldn't have said it.

"So what do we do?" Deneh asked worriedly, moving to stand between Aeris and the pool so Aeris wouldn't be able to walk forward so easily. With Carbuncle sitting on Deneh's back, Aeris stopped trying to move forward because the pair created an obstacle she could register as such in her current state.

"What is stagnant Mako, exactly?" Kunzel asked suddenly.

Eden moved forward to kneel at the edge of the pool as he said, "Stagnant Mako is—I guess it's best described as the result of the Lifestream releasing the negativity everything on the Planet generates. This would _also_ be the location where Chaos forms as the pool fills. If the level of the cave entrance is 'filled', that's only maybe an inch or two above the current Mako level. We _really_ don't have long to fix what needs to be fixed, and Chaos is already out in the world, ready to start the slaughter if things reach the point of no return."

"What are you lot talking about?" Luxiere asked in confusion.

Without giving anyone a chance to answer the other Second, Kunzel asked with a frown, "How does it fill?"

"That would be due to suffering, death, mass destruction, torture, and the like," Rufus said that time—he'd heard it from more than one source, after all. "When the people, plants, animals, and land suffer, the negative energy of that suffering transfers to the Lifestream, and the Lifestream sheds it here. When too much suffering has happened, apparently the Planet can no longer sustain itself and we see the end of the world, quite literally. Gaia's Refuge is working to help us correct some of these problems so this pool will be able to stop filling."

Kunzel looked sharply at the President's son, then nodded and faced Eden again. "Since you seem to be the one in the know, Eden, what is the actual function of this pool, besides being a meter of some sort, and—is there a way to undo things? Because in all honesty, this is basically a self-destruct sequence with no off-switch, even if we fix things. How can we get the level to go back down?"

"You catch on quick," Eden commented in wry amusement, pushing himself back to his feet as he peered across to the base of the crystal in the middle of the pool. "If we take the Lifestream—or Minerva—as the sentience of a human, and take the Planet as her 'human body', she has everything from antibodies to functioning organs. The race known as the Ancients, or the Cetra, were originally factors she created to act as some of the 'red blood cells' carrying healing to places in need, for example. About three thousand years ago, a meteor which wasn't a meteor hit the Planet, causing the damage at the Northern Crater and bringing with it an entity equally as powerful and variable as Minerva. That was Jenova. It decimated the 'red blood cells' and began taking over the host body, Minerva.

"To counter Jenova, Minerva adapted by doing things like giving us access to Materia and absorbing the monsters Jenova created into her own genetic make-up so those beings couldn't keep doing damage after they died. She's absorbed a huge number of factors into her genetics and adapted, mostly in beneficial ways, but she was never able to get rid of Jenova, and she was never able to heal the damage Jenova caused in the Northern Crater. Even her taking normal humans into her genetic base didn't negate the threat of Jenova, and recently, those same humans have been causing equally as much damage."

Eden was silent for a moment before turning back to face the rest of the group, who were watching him in surprised fascination, even Aeris. "What happens to a human body which is always in pain, endlessly suffering—then gets injured?"

"It begins to break down and deteriorate because it can't heal any injuries if all its energy is taken up by trying to fix whatever is causing the pain," Cissnei offered tentatively after a minute. "It needs to rest properly, have proper care, to stop the pain and be able to fix the injuries."

"Jenova has been an endless source of pain since her arrival," Eden said quietly after a few moments, and the others' eyes widened. "Minerva never had a chance to heal, and with most of her 'red blood cells'—the Cetra—dead, there was far less transference of healing to the places she needed it. In the normal course of events, I'm sure this pool would naturally be purged of some or all of its gathered—refuse—every so often, assuming Minerva was healthy and able to do so, but she isn't healthy and hasn't been for three thousand years. Because of that, she hasn't been able to purge this because all of her attention has been focused on trying to heal from Jenova's damage, then the damage humans have been doing to her. _That's_ why this pool hasn't been purging of its own accord and why it's so full now."

"Add to that the fact that 'Mother Earth' can't just 'stop' her own functions and ignore the people living on her surface and you have little to no chance she could heal on her own," Nanaki said quietly. "Then, without the Cetra, we're doomed."

"Should we stop using Materia and illusion stones if those are fragments of her power? Doesn't it hurt her if we use them, use her energy?" Freyra asked with a puzzled frown.

"No, those are actually beneficial functions to her," the blond Turk replied, shaking his head slightly. "We _need_ to use them, build them up, and even break them down again. At least, that's true of Materia, but I don't think Minerva would have put illusion stones in my path if those were harmful to her. I'm just not completely clear on all their functions yet."

"Wait, that has to do with Zack Mastering Materia like crazy, right?" Kunzel asked. When Eden nodded, he went on, "The Materia are severed from the Lifestream and it's _our_ energy they use, other than the energy put into them at their creation. If they were harmful to the Planet, she wouldn't naturally produce them, but like with the Reactors, it's the current quantity being produced which is problematic. Using ones which are already made doesn't do any harm, and the new babies they produce are excess energy which didn't come from the Lifestream to start with, so what they need to do is—be built up so they can be returned to the Lifestream?"

"You got it," Eden agreed. "And we're working on that. In the meantime, that doesn't actually purge this, but Genesis created an array which we believe could do so if it was modified. After all, it purged Nero the Sable, who was infused with stagnant Mako, right back into clean, pure, Lifestream energy. At this point, however, we don't _want_ to do that, because we need the Planet to be able to react properly if the route of Omega becomes necessary—this pool is the gauge for that. If we cleanse it even partially, we'll be dooming ourselves right now."

"We'll be dooming ourselves if we don't," Rufus scowled. "If Omega forms, Chaos will slaughter everything to revert it to Lifestream energy."

"Normally," Eden agreed.

"Minerva has another path for us and will take Chaos—and as many good people as she can with ones who are maybe questionable—with her in stasis in a 'ship'," Aeris said quietly. "It's not like an airship or anything, and we probably won't know it happened until we get to another inhabitable planet, but it would allow her to preserve the ones who were actually trying to save her. She knows how hard Jenova is to challenge, and she now knows even Jenova's cells aren't a guarantee of destruction, so she's now developed a plan to save what she's already created rather than discarding it. That's our reward for sincerely trying to help—for us to have another chance. She needs to be able to form Omega at the right time for that to happen." She then faced Eden to ask, "Is there a way to reach the crystal?"

"Maybe," the blond answered. "I don't want to disturb the contours of the pool, so it would be tricky to make a path over it..."

"How deep is the pool?" Cissnei asked suddenly.

"Deep," Aeris answered, head tipped to the side. "The central part around that crystal pillar should be at least as deep as the cavern is tall, if not deeper." The others all looked up at the ceiling of the cavern high above them. "And Minerva doesn't want this woman here any longer, but the woman—did you call her Lucrecia?—still isn't sure she wants to leave."

"Why doesn't she want to?" Genesis asked in confusion.

"And for that matter, why does this girl know anything about what Minerva or Doctor Crescent want?" Rufus asked with a sudden glare. "I knew Hojo wanted her for his experiments, but she's always just seemed like an ordinary girl to me, healing ability aside."

Kunzel sighed and commented, "If all businessmen are this dense when the clues are right in front of them, it's not a wonder Turks scare them."

"Excuse me?" Rufus asked sharply as the others traded amused looks.

"Hold on, why do _you_ know?" Freyra asked the SOLDIER Second.

"All the clues are right there in front of me, and because I had some Turk training before I decided on SOLDIER instead, I'm used to adding two and three to get five, since Turks almost never get anything as simple as two and two equaling four. I mean, just this one discussion was sort of a giveaway by itself, even though no one explicitly said it." His head tipped to the side as he added, "I guess that's fine, though, since the Planet desperately needs whatever help we can give it."

After a long silence and a few wry grins from the present Turks, Rufus blinked and asked, "Are you saying Aeris is a Cetra?"

"Only half," Aeris admitted. "But I've also had my abilities since I was little and built a deep bond with the Lifestream—as deep as I could make it in Midgar, anyway." Her gaze moved back to Eden. "Please do what you can to make a path over there."

The blond met Rufus' gaze for a long moment, a challenge in his eyes until the older blond relented and gave a small nod. Since Eden knew he was accepting that Aeris would not be turned over to Hojo, he spun to look at Luxiere similarly.

The man held up his hands in a surrender position. "Hey, I don't think there's a SOLDIER alive right now who would _willingly_ hand a little girl to Hojo after seeing what he did to Sephiroth and Genesis not that long ago. We're not muscle-bound idiots, we're muscle-bound _tacticians_."

"That's good to know," Eden replied in amusement. He then turned back to the pool and knelt at the edge of it again. "You lot might want to brace yourselves so you don't lose your balance." That was all the warning he gave them before clapping his hands together and putting them down on the ground as he imprinted the array to manipulate stone in his energy and imagined the simple, stone, bridge-arch he wanted to make from stone under and behind him.

Most of the others watched in amazement—around yelping and trying to stay on their feet when the ground under them moved—as light flashed and green-hued electrical-like bands of energy swirled over the ground and around the building stone bridge which started building over to the crystal in the middle of the pool. It was just a smooth, fairly narrow arch with no rails, but widened some around the far end so there was about five feet of space there, rather than about three. Because there was stone at the base of the crystal, it was able to anchor itself securely there to create a stable path, which Aeris crossed as soon as the energy currents stopped flowing.

"Fancy," Genesis commented with a chuckle as Eden rose.

"Simple, actually," the blond replied with a shrug.

Aeris rested her hands on the crystal as she murmured to the woman inside, completely focused on what she was doing.

 **Notes:**

(1) To the best of my knowledge, Shera was never given a family name, and honestly, I have no idea where this one came from. I had typed it in before I realized I had, so I guess she just really wanted that family name. O.O

(2) Did I mention before that this general description is the 'metal knight-fortress' of FFVII's Alexander combined with the presentation of the same being in FFIX, the one which was Alexandria Castle? If not, that's what this being is, though it only chooses to call out its wings or not, and generally will call them if its attack will effectively be a 'critical Judgment', rather than a normal Judgment. Or, if it wants to use the wings for something else, like in this situation.

(3) In the FFVII main game, Mime would have been found in the Materia Mine in Wutai, but I figure some of the Materai Mines/Caves would have been accessible to enterprising explorers (all of them but Round Island, in fact), so they'd have had some sort of turnover rate. When Cloud and Co. find them in 07/08, they'd still be the ones from the main game because someone would have found whatever had previously been there—in this case, what had been there before the Materia in the main game was Mime, and a different Materia is currently in the Wutain Mine.

The glow in the Mine is actually determined by the type of Materia most prominently sitting in it, not by its location—it's glowing yellow right now because the Materia in it is a Command type. With Mime removed, the glow will fade out to be replaced with the glow matching the type of the next Materia to fully develop there. At least, this is the conclusion I drew after realizing every single one of the Mines glows with the same color as the Materia you get there. Of course, Round Island may just be stuck with a red glow after however long it had a Summon just sitting there, on an island no one can normally reach without a Gold Chocobo, and—surprise—those are extremely rare, so it's pretty safe to say no one has even bothered with it before.

...Sorry, I'm babbling...


	16. 14-Released

Released

The others watched Aeris for a minute before Genesis said, "Now, back to my original question—why wouldn't Sephiroth's birth mother want to get out of her prison, especially now that Jenova has been destroyed?"

"She—seems to think her son is fated to destroy the world," Aeris called back to him with a sigh. "And she hates herself for what she did to someone named Vincent?"

"Sephiroth's _actual_ birth father," Genesis nodded. "He's a great guy and a surprisingly good father. Sephiroth is just fine and has no interest in destroying the world, and his father is part of the reason why. If she _hadn't_ done what she did to him, he wouldn't be here now to take care of Sephiroth or raise the other boy the two of them have adopted into their family. The only thing the two boys are still missing—is a woman's touch, a mother's touch."

Aeris gasped as some sort of wave came off the crystal and tears ran down the woman's face. Everyone blinked in surprise, but Aeris dropped to her knees with her hands apparently 'stuck' in place on the crystal as she stared blankly into space. An array flashed around the crystal, then vanished, making the others all gasp in surprise.

"Oh, my Goddess..." Genesis muttered.

"Oh, Hell!" Eden suddenly cursed, then ran across the bridge and put his hands on the Mako crystal for a moment. He then asked Aeris, "You still with me?" When he got no response, he called, "Genesis, Kunzel, get over here and be ready to catch the Doctor and move Aeris forcibly!"

The two ran across the bridge, and as they reached the two teenagers, Eden clapped his hands and put them on the crystal, activating the same array he'd used to remove the Mako from Weiss and Shelke. In this case, however, not only was there a great deal more Mako, but he had to modify it for use on the crystal, not on liquid in a human body. The array which had flashed around the crystal had been the one with the modifications he needed, and he had no doubt Minerva was the reason for it, the one who had shown it to them. The transmutation would usually have only lasted a few moments, but it lasted for over a minute—

When it finished, several red orbs sat on the stone dish the crystal had previously occupied and Eden's eyes shut as he fell over backwards, collapsing in a dead faint. He only vaguely felt someone catch him—then a moment of searing pain as his hand landed in liquid...

FoW

Genesis and Kunzel had joined Eden as soon as he called for them, Kunzel reaching out to pull Aeris back from the crystal as it began dissolving and himself to reach up to catch Lucrecia as she fell limply from the crystal. Rather, the empty air which had been the crystal. His head turned and he saw—

Eden falling over backwards, his eyes sliding shut.

"No!" he gasped, about to rise—

Ruluf reached the boy just in time to keep him from falling right into the stagnant Mako—but the blond's hand kept falling, right into the pool! It only stayed in for a moment because Freyra joined Ruluf and snatched the boy's hand out of the pool within a couple seconds, but it already looked—deformed. It was growing, for lack of a better word, with some sort of green and red, scale-like formation which had pretty much torn off his glove. It seemed stagnant Mako on the surface of one's skin was a quick way to create the monsters known as Makonoids. All he could do was stare in something like horror at the blond's limb—everyone else was in the same state.

A moment later, Aeris was standing over Ruluf, Freyra, and Eden as she popped a Summon Materia into the bracer she wore on her wrist, then covered it with her hand as she called, "Unicorn, we need your help! Healing Horn!"

A Summon which was completely new appeared and everyone could only stare at it in shock as it sent out a wave of blue light and green-white sparkling, swirling lights. Unicorn had a mostly white, equine body with a gold horn and hooves and a mane and tail streaked in rainbow colors. Across its body fur were faint, golden swirls which were barely visible. (1) The light flashed through the cavern, touching and healing all of them, regardless of how much they did or didn't need it right then, giving them some revitalization if they didn't need any healing.

And Genesis realized as the lights vanished that Aeris still had a particular aura which meant she was still accessing a Limit Break. When she had called for Unicorn, she had mixed her main Limit Break, Healing Wind, with Unicorn's Healing Horn, causing both to function in an abnormal way. When he looked back at Eden's hand, it had faint, brown marks like scars on it, but otherwise looked normal, and movement in his arms made him look down to see Lucrecia struggling to sit up, her eyes open and lucid.

"...What just happened?" Rufus asked in shock. "That is, I'm happy that it looks like everyone will be fine, but in all my research, I've never heard of a Summon called 'Unicorn', and what did it _do_?"

"Part of it, the green-white, swirling lights, was Aeris' Limit Break," Genesis put in, and the others looked at him in surprise. "She reached it through extreme emotion—her fear for Eden—and accidentally merged Healing Wind into Unicorn's Healing Horn. I don't know what it is in particular, but Eden made them using the array Minerva showed us and the crystallized Mako which has spent who knows how many years exposed to Doctor Crescent." Since Lucrecia had sat up by herself by then, he reached past her to the other red orbs sitting in the hollow where her crystal had been and picked one up to assess it. "They're probably all Unicorns, and it seems Unicorn heals all forms of status effects and illnesses—but it has a wait time between summonings to recover."

"So...what do we do with Doctor Crescent?" Freyra asked curiously.

The others turned to look at the woman in question to see her sitting with her hands over her ears and her eyes closed, but a moment later, her eyes opened wide in surprise as she exclaimed, "I can't hear Jenova's voice anymore! There's no pressure, no weight, anymore!"

"Jenova has been destroyed," Genesis informed her gravely.

Her eyes moved up to him, showing some Mako influence in flecks of blue in her brown eyes. "You—you're the one who said he knew Sephiroth and Vincent!" she gasped.

"You were aware—as in, able to hear us—while you were crystallized?" he blinked in surprise. When she inclined her head, the red haired man agreed, "I know them. Sephiroth's like a brother to me, and Eden—" He paused to motion in the blond Turk's direction. "—found the actual data on his possible parentage. I found out about Vincent Valentine and proposed his possible position as Sephiroth's father. They later had a blood test done to verify the fact. I have no idea where or how Eden found Vincent, though, or how he managed to get him to meet with his son."

"...Vincent is really his father?" the woman asked hopefully, and when Genesis nodded, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Does he hate me for what I did?"

"Which he, and for what, exactly?" the SOLDIER First asked dryly.

"Vincent for—changing him—and Sephiroth for—deserting him."

"If you have Jenova cells in you, there's a good chance your own behavior would have started changing for the worse," Aeris commented quietly from where she stood, making the woman look at her in mild surprise. "And from what I've seen of Hojo, he'd have grabbed Sephiroth and locked him away from you, regardless, so nothing about his childhood would have changed. Preventing yourself from causing further harm may have been one of the best decisions you could have made—even just to keep your own sanity."

"As for Vincent, I think he's mostly come to terms with that now that he's not wallowing alone in self-pity, which was how Eden made it sound," Genesis added.

The woman thought about that for a minute before slowly nodding—and asking, "What did you say about another boy they had adopted?"

"Fourteen-year-old Anthony Valentine, as his new name is," the Commander said. "He had been an experimental subject who Eden managed to—cure—before he would have died, and just sort of...bonded with them. I'm not surprised, really, all of them having been experimental subjects. And Anthony has a pretty mild personality over-all, even though he's still trying to figure out what real emotions and caring are. He's a good kid who now has a chance at a good life. Is that okay with you, Doctor?"

She blinked at him for a moment—then blinked in surprise as Dark Nation, who had rather sneakily made his way to them—gently butted his head against her side. He was clearly asking for her attention, so she slowly, tentatively started petting him, and when everyone seemed more amused than anything, she treated him like she would have a common pet dog. His tentacle waved happily as he laid down at her side.

"Rufus, has anyone ever told you your dog is an attention hog?" Cissnei asked in amusement as she also made her way across the bridge to take Aeris' hand.

"No one has explicitly said it, but I am well aware he enjoys attention, especially from Eden, Aeris, and now Doctor Crescent," Rufus replied dryly.

"Okay," she agreed, pulling a startled Aeris back across the bridge. "Let's get out of here so the others with the Doctor and Eden have more space. Also, the crew of the Highwind is probably worried about us by now."

"We should go back to the airship as well," Nanaki said, looking at Deneh, who nodded. The two padded out as Lucrecia stared after them. Libby, on Nanaki's back, and Stray Hope, on Deneh's back, opted to stay where they were and be carted out, quickly followed by Cait Sith. Carbuncle, who had somehow gotten to the dish of Materia without anyone noticing and apparently finished investigating it, quickly hopped after them.

Freyra gave a nod and said, "Unless you want me to help cart the Materia, I'm heading back as well."

"Take a few, would you?" Kunzel said to her. "And in case Cissnei hasn't done it, ask them to get a stretcher-harness ready, because I don't think Eden will wake up anytime soon, and I doubt Doctor Crescent will be fit for climbing _stairs_ , let alone ladders, in the next few days."

"I'll do that, then," she agreed as she rose from where she had been by Ruluf and Eden to collect a few of the Materia orbs, shove them in her pockets, and almost sprint out of the cave.

"Airships can't land here," Lucrecia said as Genesis rose and offered her a hand up.

"See for yourself," he smirked as she took his hand and let him help her to her feet.

They walked outside slowly, Ruluf behind them with Eden as Rufus and Luxiere walked out ahead and Kunzel took up the rear. As soon as they stepped out onto the platform, Lucrecia stopped to stare in amazement at the Summon she saw sitting below a huge, hovering airship. They could seen Deneh and Nanaki on the bridge with Cissnei and Aeris, and Freyra was making her way up the ladder dangling from the airship. Rufus began climbing up one of Alexander's arms, making the woman's jaw drop from the shock of seeing a Summon willingly letting itself be climbed on like that.

"You're going to burn in Hellfire for using a Summon like this..." the Doctor muttered incredulously.

Genesis chuckled and said, "We asked their permission first, and they agreed by these terms. We can't use them to travel a huge distance, but this is really just them sitting there patiently for a bit in exchange for some time to explore afterwards. Once we're all back on board the Highwind, Alexander gets to go look around at his leisure until I fall asleep tonight."

"...Oh," the woman stared as Freyra disappeared inside the airship. Not long after, she returned with some of the crew and the hoists and lifts they needed for Dark Nation, Eden, and Lucrecia.

FoW

Eden woke slowly, trying to figure out where he was. A weight at his side which didn't have the shape of a human made him think first of Den, Winry's dog in Resembool, but something told him that couldn't be right. Finally, his eyes opened and he turned his head—and saw either Deneh or Nanaki there. By his time in Cosmo Canyon, it was probably Deneh. As soon as he moved, the large cat's eyes opened and turned to him, showing Deneh's green-gold as he'd guessed.

"How's your hand?" she asked quietly, clearly worried.

"My...hand?" he asked in confusion.

"It—fell in the pool before Freyra could snatch it out," she replied, sitting up. "Aeris and the Summon you created healed the worst of the damage, but we don't know if all it left were some scars or if there's still other damage."

His eyes widened as he sat and held both hands in front of him. It was obvious his left hand was covered in brownish scars, and when he flexed them, comparing their movement and tension and so on, he found the damaged one a little stiff. In the distance, he heard thunder, and felt a small pull from his injured shoulder and from his leg around the port. When the pull, which always caused a slight pain, also activated in his hand, he knew it was going to be like any other scars and cause him pain in extreme weather. Normally it wasn't something which was bad or which caused him problems, since he was just used to it happening, but now one of his _hands_ was going to cause him pain, too. With auto-mail, the ports hurt, but the limb functioned like normal and caused him no pain with its use.

Giving a small sigh, he said, "It reacts poorly to storms and things, but I don't know if the stiffness in it is also because of that. It isn't bad, just enough to be a little—not quite the same as it had been."

"So, do you feel up to getting dressed and having lunch downstairs with us?" she asked, tipping her head to the side.

For a moment, he eyed the hand, realizing her words meant it was probably at least the next day. After a moment, he sighed and nodded. "What's one more scar?" he asked with a small, wry grin. "I always sort of figured I'd get more, I just didn't think one would be from a toxic substance. Where are we now?"

"Back in Rocket Town. It's the next day," Deneh told him, jumping off the bed and making her way quickly to the door. "Genesis got you a replacement pair of gloves when he found out one of the townspeople is a tailor. They're softer than your original ones, he said, to make it easier for the scars." Once she said that, she nudged the door open, stepped out of the room, and shut the door behind her—a feat animals seemed to accomplish against all logic when they didn't have hands to grasp and pull things.

After several minutes of just sitting there, he sighed and reached for his PHS, using it to send a short message to Rude: _Have you got a few minutes?_

While he waited for the reply, he got up and dressed properly—they had left his shirt and pants on, so he had to change those out—and found he had a response before he was going to head to the bathroom to finish his morning ablutions. Taking the phone with him to the bathroom, he read Rude's reply: _I'm just watching a target right now. What do you need?_

 _...I just feel like...Well, when we went to our most recent stop, it was the stagnant Mako cave, and there was an accident..._

 _What kind of accident? Are you okay?!_

Eden had to chuckle at Rude using an exclamation point, but then he sobered again because he realized the man was truly worried to use one in a text message. As such, he composed his reply carefully: _I'm okay. Well, my left hand is scarred and doesn't like storms much, but it's functional and otherwise unharmed. It might be a bit stiffer than my right hand, but I don't think it's enough to affect my abilities. So yeah, all things assessed, I'm great._

The reply took a few minutes, so he finished up what he needed to do in the bathroom.

Finally, Rude's reply came: _So how did your hand end up in the stagnant Mako in the first place?_

Raising a brow at how long it had taken the man to reply with such a short line, he answered: _I passed out and no one was near enough to catch me fully before—that happened._

 _...Passed out? Your issue?_

 _No, more like overload while trying to free someone from a Mako crystal._

Again, it took the man a long time to reply, so the blond returned to the room with the beds and sat on one. Finally, Rude's reply came: _I hope you're taking care of yourself after something like that. You have a tendency to push and push and push some more until someone makes you stop. I'd be worried about the 'someone' in the Mako crystal if I didn't know you as well as I do, and how likely you are to get into trouble without someone watching over you._

Eden stared in surprise at the words for a moment before replying: _Deneh is watching over me—she and Nanaki apparently travel quite well, as strange as that thought may be. Just like in Cosmo Canyon, if you weren't watching over me, she was._

 _Good. At least you'll take it easy for a bit with her there. Does Tseng know what happened to you yet?_

 _I don't know. With three other Turks in the group, probably. Don't Turks all have to file mission-related injuries for themselves and their coworkers?_

 _They do. Three Turks? Weren't there only meant to be two besides you?_

 _Yeah. Tseng had to send a Turk with an unexpected addition to our party before we left Midgar. So, we have Cissnei as well, but she's there to keep 'the addition' safe, not to keep Rufus safe._

 _Ah. 'Little big sister' Cissnei. If Deneh can't keep you down, she will. You'll be fine in that case. All the same, take care of yourself, and remember—you're only sixteen and need a break to recover sometimes._

The last part—about him being sixteen—made him pause and check the date. It was January twenty-first, which made him stare in surprise and realize—he'd missed his own birthday and not even thought about it!

Writing back to Rude, he informed him: _Actually, I'm seventeen now._

 _You are? What day?_

 _The twelfth._ (2)

There was a pause, then Rude replied: _That doesn't change my response. Take it easy for a bit. And Happy belated Birthday._

 _I will. Thanks._

 _Feeling better?_

 _...Yeah, I am._ And he did, so his reply to Rude's question was an honest one, not him just trying to be strong or pretend everything was fine when it wasn't.

 _Good. I have to let you go, though, or I may miss movement I'm supposed to be watching for._

 _Okay. Later, then. And thanks again._

He was pretty sure he wouldn't get a response at that point, since the discussion was over, anyway, so put his PHS away and got up to head down to the main room. It wasn't hard to find his traveling companions, especially with the woman now sitting with them. Doctor Lucrecia Crescent. She was now wearing a plain, burgundy skirt and a blue, long-sleeved shirt with some lace around the neck (3), her hair falling freely down her back as it dried—she'd probably showered not long ago. What was most shocking about her was that she looked like she was only about the same age as Vant. Had that been from the Mako crystal stasis, or did she have much stronger ties to Jenova than even most SOLDIERs had?

The others looked up as he moved over to the table (well about six smaller tables pushed together to form a larger one) to join them, holding his Kaiser Knuckles in his hands rather than wearing them—he needed gloves before he put them back on. As he approached the free chair he could see at the table, Genesis threw a pair of white gloves down on the table in front of it. Eden sat and picked the gloves up—and immediately felt how soft the cotton was, so soft it was like butter. Pulling them on, he gave the man a nod, which was returned.

"Feeling better?" the man asked.

"Just fine, scars aside. Even those aren't bad. Good thing, or I'd have trouble doing my job," Eden replied, gaze amused.

"I noticed that Unicorn seemed to be able to counteract even the Makonoid effects of stagnant Mako," Lucrecia put in quietly, making the others look at her. "If it's injected into the body, it doesn't cause physical mutation, but it's almost guaranteed to kill you, while surface application is a fast way to deformity. Normally, that would also be deadly or maiming, but in the past, there was no counter to it. What made you create a Summon like Unicorn?"

"I didn't deliberately make Unicorn a healer, if that's what you mean," Eden answered dryly. "I can make the Mako transform into Materia, but what it becomes is highly dependent on who the Mako was exposed to before I transmuted it. Carbuncle became defensive because the one it had been exposed to needed protection, for example. You needed some form of healing or counted as a healer of a sort to it, so it adapted to your nature and Unicorn was the result. I just gave it the channels to take form in a tangible way. In that case, Minerva—the Lifestream—may have been directing it to form a strong healer which could undo changes to a body or status rather than heal physical injury."

The woman blinked in surprise, then sighed and nodded. "There may be some truth to that, but that would also mean Minerva thinks much more highly of me than I think of myself."

"I told you, she never had rejected you—that was Jenova's doing," Aeris told the older woman.

"Then why did she want me out of there so badly?" Lucrecia asked sadly.

"So you could _heal_ ," the girl answered simply.

"I have no place in this world..." the Doctor sighed softly.

"So _make_ one," Eden told her, making her look up in surprise. "I seem to end up having to say this a lot. Did you see my—cybernetic leg?" The woman nodded, so he went on, "I'm missing a part of my body, and I _still_ got up and kept moving forward. You've got a good, strong pair of legs, your _own_ legs, so get up and _use_ them. Vincent did, so now it's _your_ turn. It's only fair for you to learn to live _with_ your actions instead of running away from them."

She looked taken aback, but said nothing further, which prompted Rufus to ask, "Is your hand still fully functional?"

"It should be, minor stiffness aside. It doesn't like storms, but that's no different from the scars I already had," Eden shrugged.

"That's true," Freyra agreed. "Severe scarring tends to dislike extreme weather and abrupt weather changes. Makes me glad my injuries were all minor, but my uncle got an injury when I was five that was so bad he literally started limping whenever a storm came up. If you're mostly okay with the pending storm, you'll be fine."

 **Notes:**

(1) Unicorn is a Summon I created for this story since many other Final Fantasy's have it. This version is sort of a cross between the FFVI (originally III on SNES) and FF Tactics Advance one with my own mods to it.

(2) All we know from FMA:B's artist, Arikawa, is that Ed's birthday is sometime in winter, and on the northern island of Japan, where Arikawa lives, their winter is about six months long. She never picked a birthday for Ed (or any of the characters, really) beyond that, so this (January 12th) is a random winter date I chose to place his birthday on.

(3) No, Lucrecia's not going to be dressed in her typical clothes from any of the previous games or other data, mostly because right now, she's using clothing borrowed from the townspeople or made from whatever materials the tailor who made Ed's new gloves has handy.


	17. 15-Return to Midgar

Return to Midgar

The Innkeeper arrived and began setting out meals right then, so they all turned to the food for several minutes. When they finished eating, Eden looked at the Turks and commented, "I assume all of you sent reports to Tseng already?"

"Of course," Cissnei agreed. "You're supposed to get a check-up with the Shinra doctor here and send your own report to him with the results. And once we go to our last destination here, we have to go back to Midgar for a few days."

His brow rose and he asked, "You told him about Doctor Crescent?"

"The Commander ordered us not to say anything in our reports," Kunzel volunteered. "He said he was leaving it to the Turks, so I assume they would have."

"And?" the blond asked, looking between the three curiously.

"It's not safe for her to be there openly as herself, so if you want her to join us to return to Midgar, she needs a disguise," Freyra answered.

"If she wants to go back, that is," Cissnei added. "But first we give her a new look, then send a photo to Tseng so he can create an identity for her to introduce herself to Shinra with. Some of that also depends on what kind of job she'll want. So far, she hasn't been doing much beyond saying she shouldn't be here and should find another place to hide away."

Eden looked at Lucrecia, who blushed faintly and looked down, then he said, "I'd give her a red-auburn color or black for her hair and green eyes, maybe green-hazel. I don't see why she can't just go back into the same general field of study, especially with those two Deepground doctors around who she could work under rather than Hojo. As long as she stays away from Jenova and Chaos and Omega Theory, no one could really peg her as someone they've written off as dead. Especially since she looks like she's only around thirty, not fifty. Give her a different hairstyle and a birth date around nineteen seventy and she'll be set." He paused for a moment before asking her, "So, red-auburn or black?"

"...I know Sephiroth had silver and Vincent black. What about the new boy they took in?" she asked quietly.

"Black as well," Cissnei said with a shrug.

After a moment, the woman sighed and said, "Black, then. And green-hazel eyes, since it seems you all want me to go back so badly." Eden nodded, then cast Change on her to make the adjustments.

"Very nice," Luxiere grinned at her, making her blink and pull her now-black hair in front of her.

"How?" she asked in surprise, looking up at Eden with wide eyes.

"Most Materia have 'ghost arrays' for additional spells people can trigger if they go looking for them," he answered. "The Mirage Materia added a spell called Change, and when I needed it, the point was for a long-term disguise, so it maintains the changes until I remove them. There doesn't seem to be a limit function in the spell make-up, either, so once it's set, it stays until it's removed manually or replaced."

At that moment, Dark Nation sat against Eden's leg and wound his tentacle around it, causing him to sigh. When the Blood Taste gazed at his plate and licked his lips, the blond glared at the monster and told him, "I don't feed you, so quit trying to beg me for food." The others laughed, even Lucrecia. Since Dark Nation just stayed where he was, Eden sighed again, then pushed his plate aside so he could fold his arms on the table and rest his head on them. "I think I need to go back to sleep for awhile, though..." he muttered.

"Then go sleep," Aeris said as rain began falling heavily, hitting the roof and windows with enough force to leave them no doubt of the downpour. "It's not like we can fly in this storm, so we won't be going anywhere until it ends."

"Okay..." he agreed, getting up and going back to the room upstairs so he could sleep again. Dark Nation followed him as Carbuncle and Stray Hope both landed in Rufus' lap, making everyone stare, then laugh at the cross, puzzled expression on the blond's face.

FoW

The rain kept up until sometime in the early morning hours, dissipating not long after sunrise. Since that was the case, that morning, Eden went to see the doctor assigned to Rocket Town by Shinra. When he was done there and had sent his report to Tseng, the group headed to Cid's to arrange their flight for that day. It was decided it would be best for Lucrecia to stay behind because she had no combat skill at all, so Rufus opted to leave Dark Nation and Stray Hope with her, Dark Nation for her protection and Stray Hope just in case there was something the white cat robot could do for her.

As such, those three stayed with Shera while the others went with Cid to visit the Ancient Forest, which was far to the south between Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon, situated on a mesa raised far above even most of the hills and mountains in the area. It was capped by jungle so dense that it was nearly impossible to find a place to set a Summon down, let alone for something to land—even a helicopter wouldn't be able to.

The flight took about four hours, and after several minutes, they were able to find a place on the southwestern side of it for Alexander to settle down. In the dense undergrowth, Luxiere volunteered to clear a path for them with his sword and the others fought off the monsters they startled into attacking them by traveling through the area. Only three general types appeared, one which was similar to an ostrich with bare legs and neck in dark purple and dark feathers, one like a four-footed, fat-faced demon with a dark purple hide, and one which was like a living leaf stalk. Libby told them the three were an Epiolnis, a Diablo, and a Rilfsak, respectively.

As far as working out which way they needed to go—that ended up being Freyra's expertise, and she led them towards the center of the Forest, using tricks some of the plants and monsters around Mideel reacted favorably to. The most impressive result she got was for a very large, carnivorous flower to spit out a Slash-All Materia when she dropped a beehive into it. It was a good thing Deneh and Nanaki could make much longer jumps than humans, though, because they couldn't really swing on the viney creatures the others had to use to cross some gaps.

In the center of the Forest was something like a spring, but it actually seemed to be water, not Mako. Near it, Eden tripped over a root and face-planted right in front of a red Materia which turned out to be a multi-elemental known as Typhon. The others had mixed reactions to his fall, partially amusement (both for the fall itself and finding the Materia under a plant where none of them would have seen it otherwise) and partially worry that he hadn't fully recovered yet. It didn't take them long to go through the rest of the areas they could reach, but mainly just found more enemies to fight with little else. As such, they made their way back to where they had left Alexander, the walk much easier that time with the growth in their path already cleared, and returned to the Highwind.

Given how long they had been wandering around in there—about six hours—they weren't surprised to be getting back to Rocket Town around ten that night, and they were all eager to turn in after the long day. Because they were waiting on word from Tseng about Lucrecia's new identity, the group just decided to hang around in Rocket Town the next day, taking it easy. There wasn't much to do there unless they were engineers or mechanics, so most of them actually spent the day sleeping, resting, playing card games, reading, or other quiet activities. It was also the first day Eden and Genesis had to work on the arrays for Zirconaide, and the first time he'd called on Libby's data storage to get their copies of the arrays they needed since he'd gotten her.

The only real note of interest was how Kunzel and Luxiere received word that they were slated to get their final infusion and promotion to First Class the morning following their return to Midgar.

Finally, a little after supper, Cait Sith told them Tseng wanted him to pass on the doctor's new identity, which ended up being thirty-two-year-old, self-taught scientist and doctor Lunaria Valentine nee Joran. He also shamelessly admitted she was meant to introduce herself as Anthony's mother and as the Turk Vant's wife, thought to have died some years ago in a terrible accident, which had in turn prompted the men to end up isolating themselves. She was confused about who 'Vant' was, so Genesis whispered his identity to her—and she promptly turned scarlet and hid in her room for the remainder of the evening and night.

FoW

Around two thirty the next afternoon, the Highwind arrived in Midgar, landing on the Shinra building landing pad in the space the helicopters had been moved from. Deneh and Nanaki had opted to only join Cid for the return trip to Midgar when Rufus was ready to leave for the trip to Wutai, so were currently still in Rocket Town with Shera. As the group disembarked, they found a few people waiting for them: Zack, Angeal, Sephiroth, Tseng, Reno, Vant, and Anthony. It was obvious Zack was there for Aeris (currently blond and resembling Eden's sister again) when he ran to her to snatch her up into a hug, pulling her right over the rail of the gangplank as he did. She giggled happily and hugged him back before they released one another and began whispering together.

Once they were all off the Highwind, Reno loped over to Rufus and said, "I'm takin' over guard duty for the day, yo." Rufus scowled, but nodded and stepped away from the others—which also meant the people waiting for them could see the black haired woman with them. No one was paying much attention to that as Genesis broke away from them once he knew he wouldn't be on guard duty that night, and he greeted Angeal and Sephiroth with hugs, then ruffled Anthony's hair. Zack and Aeris had made their way to Tseng, who greeted the young woman happily enough, though not as enthusiastically as he likely wanted to by his expression.

Suddenly, Vant murmured, "Lu—" then stopped himself and ran to the now black haired woman to hug her tightly as the two whispered to one another for a few moments.

Anthony had tentatively followed Vant when he'd run forward, and when the two adults parted, he froze as the woman's eyes fell on him. She then gave him a small smile and held her arms out in an invitation for a hug. Because Tseng had told him more about the situation than Vant had apparently been told, he realized he needed to answer, so he moved forward to hug the woman, who was effectively becoming his mother to support their cover—Vant's, his, and hers. At first, it almost felt alien, but then he began to like being held by a sort-of mother figure.

It didn't prevent his curiosity, and he asked barely above a whisper, "I thought you were dead?"

"By all rights, I should have been," she whispered back. After another moment, she released him, but left one arm settled part-way around his shoulders as she looked at Vant to ask, "Have we got a place where we can speak privately?"

"For today," Vant agreed. "We should go. We have a lot to talk about." She nodded and the three walked away. When they were passing Sephiroth, the Turk paused to say, "You'll still be joining us for supper, though. I'll forward you the address later."

"If I will not be imposing, I will join you," the General replied, and got a nod and smile in reply.

As the three left, Sephiroth turned to a smirking Genesis with a questioning look, and the red haired man answered, "If you _must_ know, Eden's at the center of it again, but our lady healer—Zack's young lady—was mainly the reason all is well."

"...The Turks knew," the silver haired man suddenly realized.

"Of course," Cissnei agreed as she walked by while stretching her arms out above her head in a leisurely stretch. "And Flower Girl, give me a call when you need me again, would you?"

"I will, thank you, Cissnei," Aeris called after her.

Tseng looked amused as he turned back to Aeris-in-disguise and asked, "So, how are you getting along with my Turks?"

"Fine," she smiled. "Self-proclaimed protectors, all of them." The Wutain chuckled. Aeris turned to look at Zack as she asked, "Is it all right if I visit for a bit? I won't get many opportunities to meet Tseng now." The man in question looked faintly amused.

"Sure. I'll hang with Kunzel for awhile if you want. Call me when you're ready to head out," Zack answered, then waved the Second over to him. They quickly left as well, leaving Angeal and Sephiroth puzzled as Genesis sighed in relief.

"Well, as much as this is great, kiddies, I have family to visit," Genesis put in. "Oh, Tseng, is Kariya around?"

The Wutain paused thoughtfully for a minute before nodding and saying, "He should be off his stakeout shift in about an hour and a half, so don't call him until after then."

"Really? Okay, then. I'll head to the Academy to visit my sisters," Genesis agreed, heading inside as he called, "Want to join me, Angeal?"

"Sure," the black haired man agreed, then quickly followed the red haired one.

Reno looked at Rufus and said, "We'd better get goin', too, yo—yer old man's expectin' ya."

"Oh, for—!" Rufus scowled, then nodded and said, "Fine, let's go." The two of them left as well, followed by Dark Nation and Stray Hope, leaving Sephiroth standing there alone and looking confused. And plain stunned as Carbuncle landed on his shoulder to—apparently—examine him very closely before jumping back to the ground to explore more on the rooftop.

"Sephiroth, could I ask a favor of you?" Tseng asked the man, who turned to him.

"That would depend on the favor, though most likely my response will be 'yes'. What do you need?" the silver haired man asked curiously.

"This young lady—have a look at this," Tseng said, fishing his PHS out to show him a picture in it. Sephiroth blinked, then looked questioningly at the Wutain. Tseng said, "She lives in the city. If you happen to see her around and it looks like she's in trouble—no matter who her assailants are—would you step in to protect her?"

After a long silence, the silver haired man looked over at Aeris to meet her currently green-gold eyes, and finally agreed, "I would be able to. The likelihood that I will ever be in such a position is low, but it is in the realm of possibility, so should it happen—yes."

"Thank you," Tseng told him, sounding honestly grateful as he gave Sephiroth a small smile. "By the way—you'll want to head to an address I'm going to send you momentarily. I doubt 'they' will mind if you join them now." He then used his PHS to quickly send an address to Sephiroth, who checked it, then sent the younger man a questioning look. "Well, go on," Tseng told him with a small smile.

With a sudden blink, the man realized what Tseng was getting at and turned to run from the landing platform, eagerness and excitement in every line and motion.

With that, only Ruluf, Eden, Freyra, Aeris, Tseng, and Libby were left. The Wutain faced them and said, "I have everyone's reports. Eden, you were given an activity to do by the doctor to counteract the stiffness in your hand, as well as a moisturizing cream, yes?"

"Yeah, I'm all good," Eden answered, ignoring the startled stares from the others.

"Show me your hand," the head of the Turks replied.

With a sigh, the blond pulled his glove off his left hand, letting the older Turk see the brownish scars pretty much covering it. They weren't bad, not nearly as bad as they could have been, but it would have been easy to mistake them for him having burnt his hand rather than what had happened. The problem was that, like all scar tissue, they pulled tighter than normal skin, and with nothing but other scar tissue to pull on, it had started to create something of a tense shell over his hand. The moisturizer would soften the skin and allow it more elasticity, and if he did his exercises while it was soft, he would be able to alleviate the stiffness and only need to reapply the cream at times, such as with extreme temperature changes. At the moment, the hand still showed its surface stiffness, though.

Tseng gave a nod and looked up to meet Eden's eyes. "As long as you can function, that's the important thing. By the doctor's report, you won't be endangering your life or anyone else's, even if he didn't give you the medication and exercise, it will just help keep you from feeling the wound for a longer time as you age. Was there any way you could have prevented what happened?"

"I don't think so," Eden replied, shrugging. He then pulled his glove back on. "I'm not sure I'm the best one to ask after our Flower Girl collapsed while locked in place. There was only one way to unlock her. Maybe the others saw something I could have done. Or they could have done."

Looking at the others, he mainly got shakes of the head, and Ruluf said, "There wasn't a lot of space there, and the platform was already full. If there had been more space...though I suppose I could have immediately followed the Commander and Kunzel when Eden yelled for them. I think that would have required a premonition of the fact that Eden was going to pass out, though. I don't think _he_ had any idea that would happen, let alone the rest of us."

"The array wasn't any indication?" Tseng frowned.

"By itself, the use of any array doesn't knock people out," Eden answered tiredly. "We couldn't have used that as an indicator. What caused the problem was how long it tangibly took for the alchemic reaction to stop, and most alchemic reactions only last between two and six seconds. The longest I know about were consistently ten to eleven seconds. That one—took over a minute to stop, and I couldn't withdraw from the reaction once it started until it stopped on its own. Why that happened, I'm not sure, but if it was Minerva..."

"It _wasn't_ Minerva," Aeris said, making the others look at her in surprise. "There are a couple places where Jenova is still a little anchored. Until those are taken care of and Jenova is disconnected from them, she still has a little power. The Doctor was one of her anchors, and if the Doctor left the crystal, she would lose that anchor—Minerva gave us the ability to free her while she had a desire to be free because that would definitely sever the bond she'd had with Jenova. It was Jenova Eden had to fight every step of the way, which was what extended the reaction for so long."

"How many more anchors does she have?" Tseng asked with a frown.

Aeris looked a little puzzled, then frowned a bit and gave her head a small shake as she said, "The SOLDIERs aren't, and even Sephiroth isn't anymore—I think that man who was here for Lu—naria is the reason Jenova was severed from him. That leaves the other scientists or experimental subjects infused with Jenova's cells. Did any of the other scientists do that? Were there subjects besides the SOLDIERs?"

"We would have to look into that," Tseng nodded. "In the meantime, we have a bit of time to visit—I have the excuse of investigating your value as a traveling companion to Rufus—once I give my people a run-down of the next few days." She nodded, so he looked at the others waiting there. "Freyra, Ruluf, Eden, you have the time off to rest, unless you choose to help out with a mission. You'll get a notice when the group is ready to go, so go visit the people you want to visit and do whatever things you want to get done while you're here. Oh, and so you know this, Eden, Genesis is going to be working almost steady while we're here because Sephiroth is going to be Rufus' main guard, so you're better off planning to work on private projects unless he gets in touch with you because he has free time."

"Got it," Eden agreed, still looking a little tired, as Freyra and Ruluf nodded, then all three left with Libby following—and Carbuncle used the open door to get inside with them.

"Let's go inside, then," Tseng told Aeris, and she grinned happily.

Eden, once he'd been left to his own devices, chose to visit Reeve's office first, because he needed a new leg—his growth rate since they'd left on their trip had already caused him problems with his balance, so he _needed_ a new one. The trial one had already been extended as far as it could be, and the difference between the two (his flesh and metal legs) was showing in a bad way. For some reason, though, he just felt weighed down and tired, and was seriously tempted to just go back to bed and crash for the rest of the day, but the logical side of him which said he needed to at least plan for another leg kept him on his path to Reeve's office.

It didn't take long to get to the man's office, where he knocked—only to have the door opened almost immediately by Jessie. He blinked at her as she grinned and asked, "So, how is Libby working for you? And the leg?"

She shut the door behind him as he stepped into the room, Libby following him and crouching at his feet, leaning against his leg, then said, "Libby's been great, and other than me apparently having a sudden growth spurt, the leg has been fine." At the desk, where Reeve and Biggs had papers in front of them, both men looked up at him.

"What do you mean, 'a sudden growth spurt'?" Reeve asked.

"I mean, since you gave me the leg, I've apparently grown almost an inch and a half, so I really need a new leg before we set out on the next leg of the world tour," the blond Turk replied dryly.

The older man frowned faintly and asked, "That's not a normal rate of growth, though, is it? Either way, I have the next prototype ready, and it will also allow an inch of growth. Though, you'd be down to half an inch of extension, but that will give me time to make another, hopefully before you head to Wutai, but the half-inch should do you until after the trip if you've already left before I finish the next one." Reeve rose and went to the side of the room where there were counters with cupboards and drawers, where he pulled one drawer open and carefully lifted out a new leg. "Sit so I can get the measurements," he told Eden, motioning to a chair by his desk.

"Thanks, Reeve," the blond said gratefully as he sat and rolled up his leg so he could pull his boot off. "You're right, though, that the half-inch should at least do me through Wutai, so that's definitely something. Looks like your aesthetic design has improved, too."

"I'm trying to make it more resemble the contours of your original prosthetic, since that was eerily close to an actual flesh leg," Reeve answered. "The results are promising so far, but I'm still fine-tuning it a bit. Eden, do you have any idea why you're getting this sudden growth spurt _now_?"

"Let me think on that for a bit while you're setting me up?" the Turk asked. At Reeve's nod, the blond seventeen-year-old leaned back in his seat and stared up at the ceiling as he thought. By the time Reeve finished, Eden thought he had something which may account for it, so said, "I have a—theory, but it may sound very strange and somewhat farfetched, if you still want to hear it?"

"I do," the man agreed, sitting back from the new leg.

The blond used putting his boots back on and fixing his pant leg as an excuse to take a moment to figure out what he wanted to say, then met Reeve's gaze and explained, "When I was younger, I did something really stupid. The result drastically slowed my growth, and that carried over up to this point—I think largely because the being 'favoring' me knew I'd be useless without a functioning leg. Basically, it kept me from growing until you were able to make one which would work properly for me, and now that both previous...'locks' on my growth have been removed, I've started growing rapidly to make up for lost time. At least, that's my best theory." (1)

Reeve gave a small sigh and said, "Well, let's hope it doesn't keep up like this for too much longer, then. In the meantime, I'll try to keep up with the growth and account for that in the legs I make for you. Anything else?"

"I'm fine for now. Thanks again, Reeve. Did you need Libby for anything?"

"Not today, but I may ask for her before you head back out. Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do still, and unless some of her functions obviously drop some link or another, I can't take the time to work on that fine-tuning right now."

"Let me know, then. Come on, Libby."

Eden rose and left, Libby trotting after him as Reeve just shook his head and sighed.

 **Notes:**

(1) To clarify this for people, I think FMA:B/manga had Ed at about the same height as Winry by the time they fought 'Father', but too many of the scenes from my perspective didn't actually show that height adjustment reliably. We'll just START with a virtual lack of things like growing pains for the supposedly five inches he grew in a few months, lack of Adam's apple, and continued lack of facial hair growth, which all would have been showing by the time of the battle with 'Father' if he had actually grown that much in the time noted. It's possible this is the result of the author not realizing Caucasian people grow slightly differently than Asians do (their growth is more even and less prone to sudden extremes), but it still means there's a disparity in Ed's growth as a Caucasian.

For my purposes, between the incident with Gluttony and the battle with 'Father', he had only grown about an inch, from 4 foot 11 inches (his height for most of the story) to about 5 feet. When he arrived on Gaia, he was about 5 feet tall, which is still tall for a 12-13 year old, but he also still wasn't having the other chemical reactions which would have caused him to look more like an older teen or adult.

Now he's started growing because Reeve can now make him a functioning leg, so at the point of this meeting, he's approaching 5 foot 2. In this story line, his balance issue is actually part of the reason he fell while in the Ancient Forest, and the fall was a lot more spectacular than in Salvation's Hands because of it.


	18. 16-Visiting Re-Introductions

**A/N:** Lucrecia Crescent will now be known as Lunaria Valentine in most situations. This should be the second last name change people will have to get used to in Fates of Worlds, and I rather suspect some of the name-altered people may retake their old names later on, though not all of them.

Visiting Re-Introductions

Vant had been given an address on the Upper Plate and told he was joining Tseng and the others to meet the group returning to Midgar from Rocket Town. He had been puzzled as to why, especially when he saw Anthony there—the boy had no reason to have been taken away from his training. As the party disembarked, he had thought maybe he would have to take charge of Rufus because the others needed to rest, but Reno approaching the President's son for that purpose negated his need for that. However, when Rufus moved aside, he had seen a woman with black hair whom he'd never seen before.

Or he'd thought he hadn't.

At first, his eyes had barely glanced over her—but then they had returned to her. With her hair falling down her back almost to her thighs and the locks to either side of her face cut only to brush the ear, she was attractive in a familiar-unfamiliar way. He had been about to look past her again, but then his eyes, trained as a Turk and refreshed in recent months, had begun tracing the lines of her face. Those lines had been familiar, hair color and style aside. The _lines_ had been familiar in a way he should have known intimately. His mind had begun building a different image from the one in front of him—

Realization had hit him like a ton of bricks. Part of him had wanted to slaughter Tseng for not warning him, but the larger part had been focused on her, on what he was supposed to do...Would she welcome him after so long?

He had barely retained enough sense not to say her whole name, and to not reveal any other details which may have pointed to something other than the story he and Anthony had crafted with Tseng and Veld's help, even as he had run to her to hug her. That Anthony had followed him to her, let her hug him, told him Tseng had informed the boy of at least part of what this was supposed to be, details he was notoriously lacking. He had recalled the address Tseng had also provided, so when she had asked for privacy, he had agreed they had a place for the day and led her away—but he had also paused to invite Sephiroth to join them. After all, he had every right to be there, to meet her.

Now, in that private apartment Tseng had arranged, Vant led the way to the furnished living room and turned to face them as he asked, "So exactly what haven't I been told about this?" His hand rested on the woman's shoulder, the action hiding the fact that he was shaking with emotion.

She nodded, her gaze a little worried as she looked between the two men, one younger and one older. Then she said, "Tseng thought the best way to hide me was to make me Anthony's mother and your wife, so I've been renamed Lunaria Valentine. Unlike you, I'm supposed to openly show my bond with Anthony. The basic background was that there had been an incident several years prior which destroyed the town which had been just on the north side of the Nibel Range, and in it, we were separated and I was assumed dead. The two of you didn't take that well and isolated yourselves for many years. Knowing that background, the Turks began searching for traces of me. I think you weren't told because then your reaction would look the most realistic it could, and if we had been separated when Anthony was young enough, he would be uncertain reacting to me because his memories wouldn't be clear."

"...I had never looked up any data about the destruction of Koste Village (1)..." Vant frowned slightly, then looked at Anthony. "Did Tseng tell you?"

"It was destroyed in a landslide and pretty much everyone died. I would have been six. There were known scattered survivors, but no one really cared or searched for them all, so us coming out of nowhere isn't really surprising," Anthony explained. "But even though—I mean, I know what the story is supposed to be, but...with—Doctor Crescent back, do I actually still have a place in the family?" The boy looked truly worried about the response he would get.

They all jumped in surprise as a pale hand gripped Anthony's shoulder, looking to see Sephiroth standing behind and between Lu—naria and Anthony. The silver haired man said, "You are being ridiculous, little brother." He then looked at the other two and said, "Before you ask, Tseng sent me here to join you." The twenty-year-old's hand was still on Anthony's shoulder.

With a small smile, Vant said, "He seems to be quite far ahead of us all this time." His gaze then went to Anthony as he explained, "And Anthony, feelings don't just go away because something changes in our lives. You're an established part of this family, and the only real question is how well you and Luc...Lunaria will get along. If the story placed you at age six when we thought she had died, it would be entirely expected for you to need time to adjust to one another again. In that sense, you have time to work out your dynamic." His eyes moved to Sephiroth as he added, "And yours."

After a pause, the silver haired man agreed, "As I have never known my mother and only recently found out she was not Jenova, it would be understandable. Also, as I am not 'technically' a member of the family, I should not become too familiar with her too quickly. Not in public, at least."

"Hojo told you Jenova was your mother?" Lunaria gasped in shock and horror.

"He did," Sephiroth agreed.

The woman looked between Anthony and Sephiroth for a minute before lifting her hands to rest them on the silver haired man's shoulders. "If he's the one who raised you, as much as I doubt it could be called 'raising', you've become a remarkably fine young man." She smiled and moved forward to hug him. "Throughout the pregnancy, I kept seeing images, terrible things which showed you as an adult destroying villages, killing people. I was so ashamed of what I had allowed Hojo to do, using my child that way, and I truly feared those things would happen with Jenova's influence. Rather than staying to help you, to hopefully prevent that outcome, I ran away and—tried to end my life, but that didn't work, so I hid instead. I'm so sorry for abandoning you to him..."

After a stunned moment, Sephiroth lifted his arms to put them around her. It took him some time to process the words before he finally said, "The dangers you speak of may have been more true than not had Jenova not been destroyed. While I have no desire to—follow those paths now, different events could have caused much different results. What do you mean about Jenova's influence?"

"She has a powerful mind and a will strong enough and cunning enough to find and exploit all a person's weaknesses," Lunaria sighed, letting him go and standing back a bit to meet his eyes as she rested her hands on his shoulders again. "She tried...Her cells duplicate very easily, so the cells you had been infused with duplicated and transferred to me. I could hear her talking into my head, trying to get me to do things I didn't want to do, but I just didn't want to do them, and I was getting tired of hearing that destructive litany, so I went back to the place where everything had begun and put myself into a form of stasis there. Her power—the Turk who freed me, she nearly caused his death by fighting against him over my fate."

"Who was that?" Sephiroth and Vant both asked with something like a sense of pending doom.

"Apparently the Turks have code names now?" she asked, and they nodded. "His is Eden."

Both men released pained sighs as Anthony blinked and stared, but it was the younger boy who commented, "But he looked fine when we saw him on the landing pad."

Lunaria shook her head. "His hand landed in the stagnant Mako pool and began mutating. Aeris was able to heal him with help from a Summon, but his hand still has some scars and related issues. You wouldn't really know it unless he had his glove off."

They stared at her, then traded tired looks as Sephiroth said, "Eden requires a keeper..."

Vant huffed a small chuckle and shook his head. "I don't think any of the Turks could effectively do that with him, though. He's too skilled."

"Regardless, this was about the strength Jenova has, even when greatly weakened by her main body's destruction," Lunaria put in quietly, and the other three looked at her.

"So we have to be prepared to meet that strength," Vant commented, and the woman nodded. "Part of that means making sure her ties are severed by moving forward. If I had never met Eden, I would have still been completely weak and wallowing in guilt and self-pity—no help whatsoever in stopping anything which is endangering the world. I thought...When I saw you there, I thought you would hate me for not being able to protect you or our son. That would have been a weakness she could have exploited."

Lunaria looked aside for a minute, then looked back up at him and said, "I thought you would hate me for infusing Chaos into you."

"I never hated you," he answered. "I hated myself and thought that was my punishment for everything I had failed to do. My demons were my own to face, which included the ones Hojo gave me as well as the one you did. But I started moving forward when Eden presented the thought that maybe Sephiroth wasn't Hojo's son after all, and if he was mine—maybe it was late, but I still had the chance to be a father. My bonds with Sephiroth and Anthony have been probably the biggest stabilizing factors in my life since Eden dragged me out of that dungeon I had locked myself in." He paused, then shook his head as he gave a wry smile. "I only wish in your case that I was physically capable of intimacy still. (2) If you would have had me."

Both Sephiroth's and Anthony's eyes widened before they blushed faintly and turned to stare at one another, their gazes asking, "Are they really going to talk about _that_ in front of us?"

With a soft chuckle, the woman shook her head and said, "I don't mind, really. Of course, I would have had you—even when I was with Hojo, I still preferred you, and I wish Grimoire's memory hadn't ended up putting a wedge between us. But right now, I don't really have those urges any more than you do, so it's really no loss, and I think we both have better things to do with our time." Her gaze turned to the two slightly flushed younger men, and her brow cocked as she addressed Sephiroth, "Do you mean to tell me an attractive, twenty-year-old man hasn't had any escapades with women—or whatever your preference is?"

"No, ma'am," the silver haired man answered, expression mortified. "Unfortunately, I was taught such things were weaknesses, and the two I had wanted to have such interactions with were murdered before things could progress so far. Any others in my life have been friends or family to me."

She sighed sadly and asked no one in particular, "So how did Hojo manage to convince himself that the act leading to procreation was a weakness when he wouldn't have any of his 'subjects' without it?"

"He likely didn't want his prime subject 'tainted' until or unless he chose it," Vant commented in reply, making Lunaria look at him in mild surprise.

She then made a face and admitted, "It's rather unfortunate that you may actually have his reason right."

"Okay, can we stop discussing stuff like that now, please?" Anthony asked, sounding about as mortified as Sephiroth looked.

Both Vant and Lunaria looked at him in mild surprise before chuckling, then the woman asked, "In that case, could the two of you tell me how you've been living your lives so far? I know very little about your actual background, Anthony, and I need to know so I have some idea of how you'll react to things."

The four of them spent the rest of the day and part of the night catching up on their lives up to that point.

FoW

Zack led Kunzel to his room on the SOLDIER First Class floor, then spun to face him as he asked, "So, did you keep an eye on Aeris for me?" He was grinning like a maniac as he did, even as he reached out to pull off Kunzel's helmet.

The older man glared at him faintly as he said, "Of course I did. She's remarkably capable and a quick study, and nothing happened which she couldn't handle herself. She was supporting the group and participating as much as everyone else—she may be 'your flower', but she's definitely _not_ a 'delicate, helpless flower'. I'm not sure why so many people are obsessed with protecting her, because outside Hojo's interest in—well, anything unusual, she's capable of protecting herself. My advice is to let her do what she wants and only jump in if she meets something she can't handle herself. She's plenty strong otherwise, and I really think she'll be legitimately ready for the Northern Crater when we get there."

The younger SOLDIER blinked, then blinked again and took a step back as he laughed. Kunzel crossed his arms with a glare, prompting Zack to say, "That's not the problem. I thought she didn't really know what she was getting in to, and she's never actually picked up a weapon and defended herself before, just let everyone else do it for her. Also, I meant for you to keep an eye on her and let me know about cute scenes or if someone was trying to hit on her, that sort of thing. It's good to know she's able to make the trip on her own power, though. That's a bonus."

Kunzel's lips twitched slightly as he sighed in exasperation and said, "No, no one is 'hitting on her', though Captain Cid apparently figured she should be hidden away at home because she looks so delicate. As for cute scenes...it would help if you defined that, because I'm not going to turn into a possible peeping Tom just to maybe get a photo of, say, the ladies brushing one another's hair."

"Oooo, that _would_ be cute, but no, I wouldn't want you to become a peeping Tom on my girl, anyway," Zack grinned impishly, waving the older man off. He wandered into the living room and tossed Kunzel's helmet onto the couch as he said, "Make yourself at home and I'll get drinks." As the more slender man was choosing a place to sit, Zack went to his fridge and chose a couple drinks, one for himself and one for Kunzel, both of them alcoholic. By the time he returned to the seats, his friend had set his helmet on the coffee table and picked one of the cushioned chairs to sit in, so he handed him the drink.

"Now, what else happened?" Zack asked curiously, sitting on the couch and facing Kunzel, his gaze oddly serious. "I don't think there would have been much up to Junon, but something happened in the second part. Maybe more than one something."

The Second was silent for a minute before saying, "We have orders from the Commander to leave what happens with the Turks in their hands, so I can't tell you part of that. I'm not sure I _should_ be telling you about some of the other things that happened."

For a moment, Zack was quiet, until he finally asked, "So what happened to the hidden-Turk-Kunzel who always at least dropped hints for me about strange things?"

"...Strange..." the other man sighed, looking off into the distance. He then gave a faint smile and commented, "You know, Eden really is the odd man out, even more than Tseng. There's just something about him which almost screams 'you have to notice me, and if you don't, I'll make you.' The weird part is how easy it is to talk with him, like I'm just compelled to share with him what he wants to know. It's not like he interrogates anyone, just asks out of genuine curiosity. But that time, it was Aeris and Genesis who drew the most attention, even though Eden was nearly permanently maimed. Figure out _that_ dynamic."

Zack's eyes widened with worry as he said, "But Eden looked fine before."

Kunzel nodded and replied, "It ended up not being permanent, other than a little scarring and discomfort. Since he always wears gloves anyway, you'd never notice anything different."

"True. Still—I have to wonder if there's a particular reason all Mages seem to attract attention. I get it with Aeris, though, and she can't really help it unless she's not using any of her natural abilities as a Cetra. Of course, I also can't stand Hojo's interest in her, so there's no way I want to hand her back to him."

"...You _know_ she's a Cetra?" Kunzel blinked in surprise. That meant Zack had known something he didn't, and hadn't given away that knowledge in any way.

"Of course," Zack replied easily. "Eden went to visit her while I was on guard duty, and asked her to talk with the Lifestream—or Minerva, they called it—for him."

"I see...And _your_ interest in Aeris is...?" the older of the pair asked, gaze wary.

"Me? She's gorgeous! And she's sweet and gentle, and she's patient and so, so understanding, and she laughs at my jokes, and every time she's nearby, it's like a breath of fresh air, and—" Zack began, his expression completely smitten.

"Okay, I get the picture," Kunzel chuckled, cutting Zack off. The younger of the two blinked at him in surprise. "If you're still together in five years, you have my blessings."

"Five...?" Zack stared, then his eyes widened in horror. "Five _years_? Oh, Shiva..."

Kunzel burst out laughing at the younger man's mortified, wounded expression.

FoW

Tseng and the temporarily blond Aeris went to his office, where he closed the door, then led the fifteen-year-old to the wall in the corner of the room and triggered it to open. They stepped inside and he led her to one of the rooms which was designed like an apartment, where he motioned her to look around while he checked how the fridge and cupboards were stocked.

She explored in something like amazement, then returned to sit at the kitchen table. "So, what's this and why are you showing it to me?" she asked curiously.

The twenty-year-old looked faintly amused as he went back to the fridge and pulled out a jug of juice to show her—standard apple juice. She nodded acceptance, so he poured glasses and took them to the table, then sat across from her. "This is something we've kept up mainly because you never know when someone will need a temporary hideaway. In your case, I really thought about just having you go home to your mother, but then I realized that would actually put you in _a lot_ of danger of discovery, disguise or not. As such, until you're ready to return home—and stay there—it's better if you take your rest time here. Obviously, that means you can join me in my office when I'm not with one of the Turks who doesn't know about you, and as long as you're in disguise, you may even be able to look around the building some."

"So...I'd be able to visit Zack or Eden?" Aeris blinked.

"I assumed you would want to, and this will be the trial for whether or not we can feasibly keep you safe and hidden in these circumstances. Zack and Eden both live and work on floors people have access to, so you'll be able to reach them easily enough. If someone becomes a little _too_ interested in you, even knowing you're Zack's girlfriend, we may have to make alternate arrangements for you and Cissnei, possibly staying in Rocket Town while the others return here. If the destination is Junon, things should be easier because people like Hojo won't be there."

"So how do I let Mom know I'm okay?" the girl asked as she sat back to look around the room they were in again. The only really unwelcoming thing about it was a complete lack of windows.

"Write a letter which I'll have a Turk deliver in an unmarked envelope," he immediately offered.

She looked back at him and met his gaze as she said, "On another topic, I feel like something is off..."

"Off?" Tseng asked with a small frown. "With what? Or who?"

With a small shake of the head, the younger girl sighed and said, "With Eden, ever since his hand...He's been tired a lot more, and sort of...not all there? I don't know how to explain it. I'd think it was depression if he was showing more signs, but I guess the best I can say is something more like melancholy or like there's a weight on him which wasn't there before. I'm not sure what to do about it, and even Minerva doesn't know."

For a minute, the Wutain Turk was quiet, but then he shook his head and said, "That's not a lot to go on, but I guess we should keep an eye on him. In that regard, if it's something like depression, maybe I should make sure he has people to drop in on him so he doesn't wallow in it. I know enough about him to know his normal habits would include visiting his friends or raiding the library if he's not working, so if he just opts to sleep, there may really be something wrong. We won't be able to do anything about it until we know if something's wrong and what the cause is, though."

"Mmm..." the girl murmured, then gave a nod and got up to hug Tseng. With his head leaning against her belly, she said, "I know it's hard for you to be the Director so soon. I mean, I knew Veld already had his eye on you as his replacement, but being the acting Director is a lot less stress than being the actual Director. How are you _really_ holding up with all the new expectations on you?"

He released a small sigh and shut his eyes as he leaned against her, letting her hug him. "It's a lot harder than I expected it to be. Veld made it look easy, but he'd also been doing it for a very long time, and I...Well, I expected to be able to learn from him for several more years, at least." He paused as he thought about how his life had changed. "I don't regret it, really, but there are mistakes I made which I should never have made, and the only real reason I'm holding things together this well is because I still talk with Veld every so often, get advice or get directed to more data. I have no one else to turn to, and even Reno is having trouble filling his new shoes with the sudden switch. More than once, I've thought, 'if only Veld was still here, because I'm really not ready for this kind of incident,' which is really unnerving for me."

"Well, it's to be expected, I think—he used to be the one to deal with all those things you now have to, and most of them don't come up often enough for you to have even seen how he would have handled them," Aeris said quietly. "Maybe it would be easier for you if you really got a proper night's sleep?"

"...If things weren't so hectic..."

"Tseng, they won't get less hectic just because you work harder. Sleep. That's really more important."

Before he knew it, he had relaxed to the point of falling asleep leaning against his sister, secure in her safety and her company.

 **Notes:**

(1) This is a made-up village which would have been almost directly south of Rocket Town at the edge of the northern Nibel Mountain Range, just in a position where it could be hit by any sort of 'slide' disaster. The world would technically have many of these kinds of villages across it, but they aren't key locations and are generally skipped past by travelers using what pass as Gaia's 'main' travel routes. This was one which slipped through the cracks, didn't get the help it needed, so just sort of vanished. Now, the Turks can use that to their advantage.

(2) I know, most people think Vincent is 'a vampire' and operates by the same rules, which means he's both interested in and capable of sex. The reality is—he's a fucking preserved corpse (who had clinically died BEFORE he was experimented on), NOT a vampire, meaning his body isn't capable of sexual functions. No, he can't have sex. No, he can't actually 'breathe'. No, his body doesn't properly process food, and sure as Hell doesn't need blood intake. He can feel emotions, but his physical body isn't capable of reacting to some of them in the way a normal, living, man's would. If I'm in the mood for pure smut, I choose not to nit-pick this point because I really don't care in that case, but this story isn't ABOUT smut, and I'm actually trying to be realistic, which means taking into account his actual body status. Despite him being capable of feeling love, or even lust, emotionally, it will never affect his physical body, just like sorrow or pain can't actually make him cry—he can't produce tears.


	19. 17-Wutai Again

Wutai Again

When Eden woke the next morning, he was about to get ready and go find Rufus, then remembered he had nothing to do for the next few days. Well, he still had to eat, so headed to the cafeteria after leaving Libby in the library so she could copy any data on Materia and arrays she could find, only to have Reno sit down beside him with his own meal while yawning tiredly.

"How ya doin', Eden?" the red haired teen asked mid-yawn.

"And I thought _I_ was the tired one..." Eden commented wryly, still eating almost absently. "I'm—well, tired ever since an _incident_ during the trip. What's your excuse?"

"Out all night partyin', yo," Reno admitted shamelessly.

Eden snorted. "I guess if you were partying, it's your own fault, so I have no sympathy for that."

Reno gave a grinning smirk and said, "Partyin' beats sittin' 'round here on my ass gettin' bored, yo!" He then dove into his food like a starving man, leaving the blond to just shake his head and keep eating more slowly.

After a silence, when Reno was nearly done eating, he suddenly stopped and asked, "What's wrong with yer hand, yo?"

"Huh?" Eden blinked, then looked up at him and asked in amazement, "You realized something was wrong when it doesn't show if I've been taking care of it properly?"

Setting his fork down, the red haired eighteen-year-old reached over to grab Eden's left hand and pull it towards him, which forced the younger Turk to turn to face him because Reno was to his right. The older teen then proceeded to pull off his glove, then blinked and stared at the scars on the hand he held, turning it around and around as he examined it. After several minutes, he put the glove in the hand, then released it and turned back to his meal long enough to finish it—all of maybe a minute or two. He then sat back and turned to gaze at the younger man with an odd expression in his eyes for another minute.

Finally, he commented, "At a glance, I'd've thought of burns, but I've seen burns, yo, and those ain't them. Saw some folks in the Slums, though...high as Hellfire on Mako drugs, an' their skin started warpin'. _That's_ what those scars look like, yo."

With a sigh, Eden muttered, "I thought Tseng was trying to _hide_ what happened..."

Smirking, the redhead answered, "I ain't a Turk for nothin', and ya oughtta know by now ya can't hide nothin' from us, yo. 'Sides, ya freaked Rude out somethin' awful when ya told 'im, so he asked me what I thought you'd have ta deal with."

"...Rude...Is that why he took so long to get back to me a few times?" Eden muttered, suddenly feeling so tired he had to put his head down on the table, tray nudged to the side. He didn't think the tiredness had to do with the discussion, but just was an extension of the tiredness he already felt.

"Dunno that part, yo," the other teen answered. "But yer hand ain't workin' right, so it don't take a genius ta realize the two go hand-in-hand, yeah?"

Eden snorted at the obviously unintentional pun, then commented, "I didn't realize you and Rude were so close."

Shrugging, Reno replied, "Happens when ya work together for a few years, yo." The red haired Turk gave his shoulder a pat as he rose, saying, "Take care of yourself, yeah? Anyway, I gotta get ta work, so see ya around, yo." Reno was then gone.

After a few minutes, Eden sighed and got up to retrieve Libby—and apparently Rufus' Carbuncle as well—from the Turks' Library before heading back to his own room. Since Genesis was going to be busy, he pulled out his papers and previous trials with the alchemic Fusion Materia and began to work on those. He first had Libby start copying his notes, then went over his arrays, pulled out his false starts and odd trials, and began making more notes while Libby was copying the arrays he had.

While Libby was working, he turned to Carbuncle, who was exploring his living room, and asked, "So why do you just hang around with us, but you barely even talk with or pay attention to us, Carbuncle?"

It stopped and looked at him, expression surprised, then answered, " _There's lots to see in the world, and it's fun to explore with you. But, I don't really have anything I want to say because all of you say everything instead._ "

"...So even if we asked your opinion, you wouldn't say much?" Eden blinked in surprise.

" _Unless I needed to because no one had thought of it,_ " Carbuncle replied, hopping in place with pent-up energy.

"Do you—feel like you shouldn't add your own input to the discussion for some reason, or would you rather we just left you to your own devices?"

" _I'm okay. I'll say something if I really need to._ "

"Did you want me to let you out to keep exploring?"

" _No. This looks interesting for now, so I'll watch for awhile._ "

"Suit yourself, then," Eden agreed, turning back to Libby. She was nearly done, so he turned his mind to his project.

Up to that point, he'd managed to test an alternate to the Bolt Blade he'd found which changed very little—but what it _did_ change was its functionality slightly. The project had originally been one he assumed he'd be discarding, but it had definite uses and he wasn't so quick to actually discard it. In turn, that meant he had to give serious thought and real trials to some other random ideas he'd thought of over the time he hadn't really been able to test things.

After having found without doubt that un-Mastered Materia wouldn't work, and they also seemed to 'die' to the point of losing their energy without being returned to the Lifestream if they shattered, he quickly began using Mastered Materia instead. What tries he'd had with those indicated a need to perfect methods of fusion, but they retained their energy when reduced to a powdered form, so he kept all of those carefully stored, each labeled clearly with which type of Materia it was. Who knew if there would eventually be a use for the dust? Better to keep it than toss it, just for the fact that it still obviously had energy in it.

That time, because he had three days of largely just working on his experiment around visits from his friends and the kids (including Aeris, to his amused surprise), meals, and trips to the various libraries for reference material, he made quite a bit of headway on it. If he hadn't been so tired for no fathomable reason, he'd probably even have gotten more done in the time he'd had, but his interest in his project also helped keep him awake so he didn't just sleep for the whole three days. The only other real point of interest was when a rather surprised, confused Zack stopped by to get his Final Attack and Revive Materias so he could begin Mastering them at Tseng's request. Obviously, Eden agreed—he wasn't using them right then, anyway.

The first successful attempt he managed was to create a Bolt Blade by tweaking Shinra's method, for a result which was able to gain experience and Master while having a growth cycle from Bolt Blade to Bolt Blade 2 to Bolt Blade 3. He knew it would be useful, so moved on to the next set of trials after having Libby store that fusion array, then began heavily modifying for proper alchemic arrays. He had another method of that Bolt Blade to try, after all. Its result was also something legitimate, a Materia which allowed the use of all three levels of Bolt Blade or Bolt to be cast, but removed the automatic function. He'd have to work on a way to return some form of that later, since it being automatic was part of the reason they had wanted to merge Lightning and Elemental.

After that, he turned his attention to a different type—it had been suggested to him by Evan when the kids (Shelke, Yufi, and Evan) had visited him in the morning on his first full day back. The idea had merit, so he decided to try combining two of the same Mastered element together, starting with two Earth Materia. The first try on that one shattered, but the second merged—and he was stunned when he found it giving him Quake 4, Quake 5, and Quake 6. That would _definitely_ have to be explored more later.

He spent most of the three days working on trying to get the opposing elements to merge (Fire and Ice, to keep the example simple), but had mainly just shattered them to dust because he couldn't figure out what the correct exclusion arrays were. He'd have to work on that more before he'd be able to get it right, and might even need to ask Genesis for some help with it. As such, he had Libby save his progress on the fourth morning when he was given notice that they'd be leaving around one in the afternoon, then set it aside for the time being.

FoW

When the party reassembled on the Highwind (Rufus, Freyra, Ruluf, Cissnei, Aeris, Genesis, Luxiere, Kunzel, Carbuncle, Dark Nation, Stray Hope, Libby, Cait Sith, and him), Genesis immediately found a private cabin and collapsed in sleep. Luxiere and Kunzel explained how they'd had Genesis and Angeal—and all those not getting infusions—going non-stop since the group had returned to Midgar, so the others just let Genesis sleep. Since Kunzel and Luxiere were officially Firsts as of that day, they wore the black uniform, earning congratulations from most of the group. Then they found out Nanaki and Deneh were actually also on board, but had opted to stay hidden until the Highwind had taken off.

Most of their time in Wutai was going to be meetings and official work, though the Emperor would be willing to work out times for them to take away from work and the City as well. In fact, the first day of their week-long (maybe longer) stay in Wutai was mainly just them initially meeting Godo and getting settled in their rooms, then the next two days were a string of meetings. Eden would have been much more irritated and bored if he hadn't ended up with running commentary from Cissnei and Freyra during those days, and he instead found he had to struggle not to laugh. Even without an order, Libby started recording the meetings and stored them in her database, but no one was really sure why she had done so.

It was the third day when they had some time off, which led to Eden (with Libby holding onto his shoulder) actively taking the time to explore Wutai City while Ruluf and Genesis were guarding Rufus. Aeris, Cissnei, and Carbuncle went with Nanaki and Deneh to explore while Rufus, Genesis, Ruluf, Dark Nation, Stray Hope, and Cait Sith all spent the time relaxing in the Palace gardens. Freyra, Luxiere, and Kunzel left the city before dawn, leaving everyone confused, as all any of them had was a text message from the three saying they were going to check something out.

Being on his own for the day gave Eden time to visit the Da Chao Statue and to see what kinds of shops were in Wutai City. The Statue actually surprised him, as most of it was riddled with passageways like a maze which wound both inside and outside the Statue and the cliff it was backed against. By the time he reached the end of the path, he was standing in front of the Statue's head, and wondered what the point was for several minutes. It had been a fun climb (not as fun as the Pinnacle in Cosmo Canyon, but fun nonetheless), so he gave a wry grin and decided to take it as a worthwhile climb. Also, the view of the City from there was impressive. As he was about to leave, though, he noticed a sparkle between the Statue's chin and the edge of the 'hand' sitting palm up against it, the same hand he stood on. Retrieving the sparkling item, Ed found it was a Steal as Well Support Materia, so pocketed it.

From there, he decided to head into town for something to eat before exploring the shops, and was finding most restaurants and shops to be highly traditional. There were, however, some shops which sold some very nice weapons (but not of the types he needed) and Materia. In one such shop, he found a Support Materia called Magic Absorb, which let its wearer recover casting energy by doing damage to an attacker with the linked Materia. That was an automatic purchase meant to be kept.

They really needed more people like Zack, who could Master Materia so quickly and efficiently without suffering for it. He had a feeling Yufi would be one of them, but until she was broken of her bad habits, handing her any Materia was a _very bad_ idea, whether she could Master them quickly or not.

By the time he finished in the shops, it was time for supper, so he went to eat at a different place from the one where he'd had lunch. He'd noticed during the day that many Wutains were at least uncomfortable around him, even though Godo had made a formal announcement to let everyone know they were no longer at war and to expect visitors with the Shinra territory's looks or from Shinra Company directly. People had left him alone, had allowed him to make purchases and similar things, but it felt like things were going to reach a boiling point soon. If he was there when they did, there was a good chance he'd be the one the Wutains lashed out at, because after years of war, the end of it was hard to accept.

As he was scanning the surroundings, though, he happened to notice a 'shady' Wutain slip into an alley, so followed him into it.

"What are you doing, Eden?" Libby asked softly, ears twitching.

"Seeing where that shady guy's going. It gets me off the main street and away from the building tension," Eden answered, so Libby silenced.

The form moved down the alley past a number of buildings until he came to one with a stair leading down several steps, which the shady man took. At the bottom, he opened a door and stepped inside, so the blond Turk moved over to the top of the stair, only to see a door with a rickety, wooden sign nailed into the wall beside it, faded to near illegibility. He couldn't read it because it was in Wutain, but something just told him this place was important—useful. Quietly, he walked down the stairs and slipped the door open sideways (it was just like most Wutain sliding doors) with as little sound as he could manage, slipping inside as soon as it was open enough for him to fit.

Once he'd shut the door and turned to look around, he saw—a shop.

It wasn't a shop for anything in particular, more of a mish-mash of people's used up junk. At least, that was his first assumption, until he saw a sword laying on one shelf which should have been in some noble's armory waiting for use, and Libby made a small ' _ooo_ ' sound. When he first entered, he saw a shelf similar to a bookshelf in front of him and aisles leading both ways from the door, and he could hear two voices in the back, left corner. As such, he turned right, scanning the shelves until he reached the corner, finding that his first assessment of it being a 'junk' shop was most likely false. Once he was around the corner and walking down the next aisle, he was _sure_ this was more like a Black Market shop for rare or illegal goods, and it was _very_ well-stocked.

Keeping out of sight of the corner where the Wutain voices came from, he went up and down the aisles, seeing some items he knew would be worth his whole paycheck. In one, he found a sword similar to Genesis' Rapier which he thought would work well for Kunzel, so picked it up. In another, he actually found a gun which had an older pistol look, but which seemed to be internally updated for efficiency, so grabbed it for Rufus. Another had several shelves of rare Materia, but only three of those caught his eye, each of them the only copies set out. They were Aero, Water (1), and Shapeshift, all Magic Materia in green and with varying spells.

Aero and Water were similar in design to the basic elements with three levels of spells to gain and no prior usage to speak of. Shapeshift, on the other hand, was the single most complex Magic Materia he'd ever encountered, as it had multitudes of rules and formats for use. The degree of data required for it to function was through the roof and caused Eden to go cross-eyed until he'd finished assessing it all. Its first level merely changed a person's appearance (their skin, as it were, and their clothes) to outwardly match, or copy, someone else's. Its second level physically changed the person's gender, and the body's inner workings by default. The third level apparently allowed 'hybridized' forms of humans with many types of animals or monsters. Similarly, the fourth level allowed a person to shapeshift completely into an animal or monster form (2). Both third and fourth level had requirements set which prevented Mastery before they'd been met, but he had no time to assess it all right then.

As far as he could tell, though, the base energy requirements for Mastery, not including the other requirements, would probably take Zack all night or longer to reach.

What was the point of this Materia? Why had Minerva even created it? He'd have understood the illusion copy of the first level and the final transformation wholly to an animal or monster, as both of those had legitimate uses in things like escape or spying, along with other things, like rescue or hunting. The two in between—what were those for? What use did they have?

He took the three and kept looking around, finding another shelf with a small collection of gems on it which he thought were illusion stones. A quick comparison of them to the two he had told him they were indeed what he thought they were, so he pulled out his PHS and moved to a spot where he wasn't likely to be seen as he dialed Tseng's number—it was a little after six in the morning in Midgar.

"What kind of trouble have you gotten into _now_ , Eden?" Tseng asked tiredly, and Eden gave a small chuckle.

"I found what I gather is a Black Market shop, and I know I don't have enough funds to get everything I'd like to get, and some of it's for the Turks or SOLDIER, like a bunch of illusion stones and some very nice weapons. How do you want me to work this?" the blond Turk asked, keeping his voice low.

There was a long silence, then Tseng gave a small chuckle and commented, "Only you, Eden." He paused for a moment, then said, "Start taking photos of everything you've already grabbed which is for someone other than yourself, then start taking pictures of everything in the shop. Give me any lists of things like Materia—we can't tell what those are from looking at them—and I'll let you know if we want it or not."

"...Okay, here's another question. How will I carry it all?"

"You have Mini, don't you?"

"Yeah...Can that affect an inanimate object?"

"It can, it's just harder to target an object."

"And getting it all back to you?"

"Ask Godo for some shipping crates and have him send them with his next shipment of goods which passes through Midgar before going to Icicle Inn. Those will be marked for delivery in Midgar, so it won't even be out of their way."

"Okay, then. Prepare for a mass data download."

"Don't worry, I have."

With that, Eden took photos of the weapons he'd already picked up, both with a note saying they were for Kunzel and Rufus, then the illusion stones. He then began going to all the other shelves and snapping photos of the other items on them, none of those having an additional note until a closer look at one shelf revealed some engineering tools, and he thought Reeve may want those. By the time he was done taking all the photos, Tseng was sending him back data on which things 'Shinra Company' wanted.

For the first time, Eden went to the shopkeeper—the other man he'd followed in there had left by then—and said, as the middle-aged man stared with shock and hostility, "I'm prepared to spend a ton of gil here as long as you're willing to sell. Since you work the Black Market, we can do this two ways. Either you make the sales and get your money while I keep your cover, or I bring the Emperor in here. Frankly, I'd rather the first option."

The man glared at him suspiciously for a minute, then said slowly, obviously taking his time to carefully choose his words, "I have sold to people outside Wutai before. Never to Shin-Ra workers, especially not Turks. How did you find this place?"

"Your last customer looked suspicious, so I followed him and found this," the blond Turk replied evenly, gaze faintly amused. "But we aren't enemies anymore, and these things won't be used against your people. Turks also get a lot of money, and I haven't used much of mine since I started with them, so I have a lot to spend—more because I'm helping people gather gifts for friends or family, so they're going to add to my available funds." It was close enough to the truth, anyway, no matter how he looked at it, because apparently Tseng, Lazard, and now Reeve, were all choosing very specific items to give to very specific people they knew.

"...How much, and what, are you buying?" the shopkeeper asked, still wary but now curious as well.

"Uh...funds permitting, about a quarter of your shop. Quite a few of the items are gathering dust, so they've obviously been here awhile. I expect a discount on those. Does this mean you'll sell to me?" Eden asked, gaze amused.

After a silence, the man sighed faintly and said, "Show me the items so we may collect them."

Eden led him around the shop to gather items off the shelves, returning everything to the counter at the front until there was almost no room left there anymore. About eighty percent of it had been gathering dust, so the shopkeeper started checking his records and they could haggle a price. When Eden sent the total to Tseng, there was about a five minute wait before he got word to use his card to make the total purchase. At first, the shopkeeper was a bit skeptical about the Turk being able to afford such a large purchase, causing him to gape in shock when it went through. The blond began packing everything into crates so he could sort it later, starting with the smaller items.

Using Mini, Eden was able to shrink everything so it fit in two fair-sized boxes which could then be put in bags for him to carry, but the weight of them was abhorrent until he thought to use Float on the boxes. The shopkeeper just stood there in amazement, shaking his head as a very happy Eden left the shop with his purchases. At that point, the seventeen-year-old Turk thought it best to head back to the Palace, though he did it through back routes and came up at the side door he, Inagi, and Felicia had used many days the last time he'd been in Wutai. The guards there recognized him and were familiar enough with him to simply allow him to enter the Palace.

 **Notes:**

(1) Aero and Water exist in most FF games. They also exist in Crisis Core for sure. I'm assuming here that they are actually exceptionally rare, whether they're in the category of 'basic' elements or not, so the Wutain Black Market seemed like the ideal place for them to be.

(2) This was sparked by something in Before Crisis, where Fuhito had made 3 male Ravens (all of the Ravens were male as far as I can tell, even if some of the AVALANCHE members could have been female) into exact copies of himself, Shears, and Felicia. He had used 'a transformative Materia' in order to do that, and the illusion held for a certain amount of time afterward the three were killed by 'the player Turk'. One of the Ravens (still all male) later transforms into a copy of 'the player Turk', male or female. Stages 1 and 2 of Shapeshift explain that peculiarity, but once I began developing this Materia, I also realized there would have been a very valid reason for Minerva to have created it for the Cetra after Jenova's arrival on the Planet.

The Cetra were being assaulted by Jenova and her monsters, and their numbers were dwindling. Far too often, they weren't able to fight their way out of danger or were trapped in some situation they couldn't get out of as they were. However, if they were fully able to transform into some sort of monster or animal, they would be able to bypass anything attacking them without the attacker realizing it. This could have been by being a similar type and being taken as 'one of' their attackers, or it could have been because they turned into, say, a bird or a mouse to escape from the attackers entirely.

How much this will apply to the story in the future—we'll have to see, but within this story, I don't see it being a major player, other than maybe for some funny scenes if anyone wants to see some or I think they play into character development. If anyone has offers or suggestions of something they might like to see, mention it and I'll see if there's a way or place it might fit, since we all know Ed _will_ develop this Materia to its max. This also applies to Salvation's Hands for those readers who are reading both!


	20. 18-Treasures

Treasures

Once back in the main room of the suite the traveling party had been assigned (it was a much different format than he and Felicia had previously used, more like a very large apartment than like bedrooms), he sent a servant to get Godo for him if the man had time. While he waited, he opened the boxes and began taking everything out of them so he could enlarge it all and sort it out for what he needed to do with it while Libby hid under the table to 'sleep'.

As he was separating out the items for his traveling companions, there was a knock on the door, so he called, "Enter!"

The door opened to reveal Emperor Godo, who halted just inside to gaze at the mess in surprise, his brows rising into his hairline. "Should I ask?" the older man questioned after a pause, shutting the door behind him.

"I found a very interesting shop. Apparently, Tseng, Lazard, and Reeve agreed with me," Eden replied. "I need crates to put most of this in to send it to Midgar with the next shipment of supplies you're supposed to send to Icicle Inn through there. If you don't have the time, can you send me someone who can help me sort that out?"

"...You realize most of these goods have been missing for over a century, don't you?" Godo asked in mild amusement.

"Is there anything in particular you feel you _must_ keep?" the blond asked. "Oh, speaking of which, there _was_ something I found which I thought you might like." He had put the item in question in his bag with another one similar to it (one he planned to give to Tseng) and the Materia he'd bought, so he quickly retrieved the two from there.

Both were gorgeous statuettes, clearly in a Wutain design and with such fine detail and highlights in gems, one in pale gold and one in red gold. The pale one depicted Leviathan and was accented with sapphire, emerald, jade, and aquamarine gems, and the red one depicted a tiger with ruby, obsidian, tiger's eye, and citrine gems. He showed both to the Emperor, and at the man's stunned expression, he offered the Leviathan one to him. The man took it reverently, handling it with the gentlest care as he turned it around and around to examine it.

"Still in perfect condition after so long..." the man murmured, then looked up at Eden. "Why are you only passing this one on to me? Were there any others like this in the shop?"

"These were the only ones I found, and I'm giving the tiger to Tseng," the younger man answered, gaze amused, but also a little uncertain. He blinked in mild surprise when Godo chuckled.

"Eden, Tseng _is_ the tiger. If that one's owner is intended to be him, then it will be where it was always _meant_ to be. This one—has finally found its way home, so I thank you. How is Yufi doing?" the man asked as he sat near where Eden was working.

"She was fine the last time I saw her. The President took her as a good-will gesture from you and allocated a residence and guard to her—normally, Illis of the Turks fills the role. Yufi decided to go to school at the Shinra Academy, and while she gets some of the comforts and powers she had here, she doesn't get nearly so many. Apparently, she's getting rather attached to the Turks, too, and it wouldn't surprise me if she eventually decided to apply to us. She's made friends with some of the kids we've got at the Academy, and is learning to—not commit crimes," the teen answered, sounding amused.

Godo's lips twitched slightly before he sighed and said, "Thank you for making every effort to correct my oversights. After her mother died, I was at a loss as to how to handle her, and with the war...it was so much easier to focus on the latter. Her theft of those boys' gil has resulted in her losing her allowance until the amount has been paid off, and after hearing of the parents' situation, I have given them a loan to set up their shop for the community." The words made Eden grin. "What else did you find at that shop of yours?"

"Some random stuff, and a really strange Materia. Have you ever heard of one called 'Shapeshift'?"

"I have," the Emperor agreed as he blinked at the younger man in shock. "We have one here, though no one in particular owns it. The functions it operates by are highly unusual, and our records of said functions are fairly detailed, given how only three—well, four now—are known to exist. (1) Why?"

"Can you tell me how it works and what the purpose of the second and third levels are, since they don't seen to—have a purpose?" Eden asked eagerly.

"...Eden, the Shapeshift Materia is quite literally changing your body structure, and you only return to your actual human form either if you will it or you have been dead for longer than Revive would be capable of reviving you. If you were to suddenly cause yourself to become some other being, what do you suppose would happen to your body?"

For a few long moments, the blond just sat there with a puzzled frown as he thought about the question, then blinked in surprise as an image of Nina as a chimera flashed through his mind. He said tentatively, "A sudden shift from one form to another is normally excruciatingly painful, and most who are subjected to such a thing, especially as an adult, don't survive. What does that have to do with the spells on Shapeshift?"

"The first, Copy Skin, changes your skin and possibly adjusts your height, which are fairly minor modifications to your body. Often, using it on yourself a minimum of three times is sufficient for the body to adapt to those changes. The second, Switch, changes your gender, which keeps you as the same species, but changes your height, features, and bone structure to suit the differences between a male body and a female body. While a few exemplary individuals require six transformations to adapt without pain or discomfort, most require—far more, due to chemical and emotional differences between the genders.

"The third, Hybrid, begins to modify the body for animal shapeshifting, by adding tails, fur, scales, claws, wings, and other features humans would not normally have. Those normally require approximately six transformations under each of several 'categories' to adapt to. Finally, the fourth, Shapeshift, allows a complete animal transformation, and has a plethora of requirements to meet before allowing Mastery, and those must take place in stages. Without the first three spells and their adaptation requirements, the body would be torn apart by the fourth."

"So...the whole system is designed to adapt the body...and it assesses how easily we're able to take one type of transformation before allowing us the next?"

"Correct."

"Then why are the Hybrid and Shapeshift spells so complex?"

"The range of the Materia allows for mammal, bird, and reptile transformations, ranging from flight-capable to serpentine to mixed form animals and monsters. Each has different basic requirements in general categories, and as individual entities. In the Hybrid state, you learn to adapt to such things as having a tail, or having leathery wings, which function differently from feathered wings, and to adapt to having hollow bones or being cold-blooded rather than warm. When completely Shapeshifted, you need to adapt to whatever creature you chose to become, large, medium, or small, and are only able to use the large-size transformations after mastering smaller forms first. After all, becoming a snake is very different from becoming a lizard, which is different from a Chocobo which is different from a monkey which is different from a Griffin. You must learn each and every one independently before Shapeshift will Master."

"Holy..." Eden muttered, pulling out the Materia in question to stare at it. "Then, there's a good chance this will never be able to be combined with other Materia..."

"Combined with other Materia?" Godo asked curiously.

"I have a project ongoing which would allow many Materia to be combined into one shard. This is so complex and takes so much data that there's a good chance it fills its whole available space, so couldn't be merged with anything else. I've only encountered one other Materia I'd say that of," the blond Turk replied, shaking his head. "So this Shapeshift Materia makes you put a massive amount of energy onto it as well as meeting increasingly demanding requirements before it'll Master...And this is based only on using it on yourself, yes?"

At Godo's affirmation, the younger man went on absently, "So you could use it on others and it wouldn't help it Master, so its advancement depends solely on your own work towards it. That means it's not the sort of Materia which can be handed around easily. The benefit I noted in the arrays before was that it's variable with the Hybrid stage, allowing variants of appearance and feature changes, but it retains your own coloring...Maybe that's where 'Change' comes in, as those affect solely coloring, and seems to operate on the principles of permanency which alchemy operates on, regardless of sub-arrays..."

"Shall I send for servants to crate and deliver the items you wish to send to Midgar?" Godo asked in amusement, cutting into the Turk's rather intriguing musing.

Eden blinked, then looked up at him in mild surprise for a moment before saying, "Sure. I just have to finish separating out the items staying in the hands of people here. Sorry for taking up so much of your time, Emperor Godo."

"It is no trouble. This was a pleasant diversion from my paperwork." The man pushed himself to his feet and added, "Thank you again for your help with Yufi. The servants should arrive shortly, and I would suggest you keep your Shapeshift Materia hidden while in Wutai." (2)

"Okay, thanks," Eden agreed, tucking it back into his bag and going back to his sorting.

FoW

Everyone began returning to the apartment Emperor Godo had allocated to Rufus and his party around nine that evening, and all but one of the boxes had been taken away by then. The last crate would be joining the others as soon as Freyra, Luxiere, and Kunzel had gotten back so Freyra could have a look at the illusion stones, though it pretty much went without saying that Rufus, Genesis, Ruluf, and the 'animals' with them would be back first. In the meantime, Eden had laid everything out for the group there at the moment, all in some sort of order so he could find things quickly and easily.

Much like Godo had done, Rufus, Genesis, and Ruluf opened the door, stepped inside, and pulled up short to stare at the mess. With an irritated glare, Rufus asked, "So what's all this, then?"

"Gifts from the Wutain Black Market," Eden answered wryly.

The older blond held a hand to his head tiredly as Genesis laughed and quoted, " _Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess_!" The words caused Ruluf to give a sigh and an amused shake of the head, but Genesis was already going on, "So, who are the gifts for, exactly? Are there any for me?"

Eden snorted and asked, "Haven't I already given you enough powerful toys, Genesis?"

"Of course you have. I sure won't turn down more of them, though," the red haired man grinned cheerfully.

"Sorry, none for you in this batch," the blond Turk answered. "This box—and others already packed and waiting for shipping—are bound for Midgar so people there can make use of them. This one hasn't gone yet because some of the things laid out are for people here, but they're going to have to choose to keep what they have or switch off, and anything they don't choose will join the shipment to Midgar. For example, there are three swords Kunzel may like, so once he's chosen the one he wants, the remaining two and his old SOLDIER sword will be packed up to go."

"And those stones?" Ruluf asked, noting the pile up against Libby's belly where she still 'slept' under the table, though much closer to the edge now.

"Tseng said Freyra has first dibs on those, also to allocate them to the people who will get the most use out of them," Eden shrugged. "I'm not actually surprised, since she seems to know a lot about illusion stones, like the ones I have in my sword."

Rufus moved over to scan the items laid out on the floor, then looked at Eden with a raised brow to ask, "Did you want to wait for the others to return before handing items off, or are you planning to hand them out as their destined users arrive?"

In response, Eden picked up the pistol he'd found for Rufus and offered it to him, hilt-first. "That one's yours," the Turk said, then moved the sophisticated shotgun also sitting on the floor closer to Libby.

"This one? Not some other one?" Rufus asked with a small frown, taking the rather old-fashioned pistol. He liked the design, but it was more of a showpiece in his mind.

"Have a look at its guts. You'll like it," Eden told him with a smirk. "Anyway, the shotgun's for Freyra, and Wutai has a very limited supply of guns—only the military gun-lances have rifle capabilities, and they otherwise don't use them much. One of the other three was better-suited to someone in Midgar, but Ruluf, you may want to have a look at the pair sitting on the table."

Ruluf looked over at where the other Turk had pointed to see the two guns Eden meant, and moved over to them to pick them up to examine them curiously, even as Rufus began pulling the pistol apart. While both of them were working on their own weapons (or potential weapons), Genesis gave them amused looks before going over to one of the cushioned seats which had a back leaning against the wall so he could sit. Once he was settled, he pulled out a book to read.

Soon after, just as Ruluf decided to keep the new set of revolvers and was handing his old pair to Eden, the door opened again to admit Freyra, Luxiere, and Kunzel. All three looked flushed and their eyes were shining with excitement as they tried to smooth their mussed, dirty clothing. They also had a smell clinging to them which was distinctive of Chocobos, meaning they had probably been out riding.

"What's all this?" Kunzel asked curiously, hesitating a moment before slipping his helmet off to shake out his hair and rub under the bottom rim, dislodging several bits of leaves and grasses. He was then about to put it back on when Eden seized one of the blades laying on the floor and used it to whack the helmet out of Kunzel's hands, causing him to yelp, "Hey!"

"Straw's cheaper," the Turk replied with a feral grin. "And leave that bloody thing off. We're all friends and allies here, no one's questioning that."

Everyone gaped at him for a moment before Freyra chuckled and faced Kunzel to look him over appraisingly. He blushed faintly and turned to head for where his helmet had fallen, only for the woman to catch his arm and sidle up against him as she commented, "If I'd known you were so gorgeous under that helmet, I'd've been first in line to ask you for a date—or for several of them." Her gaze was full of sleepy amusement as she added, "And I'll gladly make it worth your while if you keep it off when we aren't on the march from now on."

Kunzel flushed bright red as Genesis chuckled, Ruluf and Luxiere fought amused smiles, and Rufus smirked at the new SOLDIER First. "It's not nice of you to tease about things like that, Freyra," Kunzel told her, keeping his voice even despite the color in his cheeks.

Her brow rose and she replied, "I'm not teasing." To prove the point, she lifted her heels just enough that she could kiss him on the lips. (3) It was a surprisingly chaste kiss—then again, they had an audience—but Kunzel still had to relent and put his arms around her waist to kiss her back.

When they broke the kiss, Freyra looking very pleased and Kunzel still blushing hotly, the younger man drew in a deep breath and said, "If you're serious, we can give a relationship a try—just to give you fair warning, though, I'm not fond of my partner having multiple partners. I'm not going to be sleeping around, either. Well, unless we find this isn't going to work."

The Lady Turk grinned and told him, "In that regard, we're on the same page. If that's all settled—that means I expect you to leave your helmet off in relaxed settings. Like now."

Sighing deeply, Kunzel first sought out Luxiere's gaze, found him looking amused in a good-natured way, then turned back to her and agreed, "Fine." She grinned and gave him another quick kiss before turning to scan the items laid out on the floor, Kunzel following her gaze.

"Are you done now?" Eden asked dryly.

"Yup!" Freyra chirped. "So, what's with the mess?"

"Gifts from the Wutain Black Market," Eden told them, then pointed to the stones Libby was 'holding'. "Those are illusion stones, and Tseng said you get first dibs on them. He also said he needs you to allocate them to the people who would be best to use them, since apparently you know a fair bit about them. The shotgun there is also for you if you want it, and if not, it'll be added to this crate to join the stuff bound for Midgar. Kunzel, those three swords over there are yours to pick which one you'd like, and the larger one sitting beside those three is for you to look at, Luxiere. Any you guys don't want will go to Midgar." As he spoke, Eden pointed to the three blades similar in size and weight to Rapier which were sitting nearest the crate, then to one much larger broadsword a few feet from them.

"Uh, how will we afford this?" Kunzel asked warily as Freyra moved over to look at the shotgun first.

"You don't have to. Lazard covered the cost of those because he knows you'll make it back in work," the blond Turk answered absently, gaze on Freyra.

"Lazard paid for this?" the Lady Turk asked in confusion.

"No, he paid for the items meant for the SOLDIERs, Tseng paid for the ones meant for the Turks, and Reeve covered everything else," Eden told her, gaze completely amused. "Tseng is assuming the illusion stones are staying in the Turks because SOLDIER weapons are too heavy for them, so he covered those. I paid for a few things out of my own pocket, too, but those aren't for people here."

"Ooohh," Freyra murmured, then chuckled. "Okay, then. The shotgun's good, but I'll have to take a closer look at it later. I'll start going through the stones now so we at least know if we're keeping them here or not." She set the shotgun on the table, then sat cross-legged by Libby and the stones to start sorting through them. "At a glance, there are only four stone colors missing from this set, and some of these are—variants of the known ones."

"Variants?" Genesis asked curiously, eyes on Kunzel as he tested a sword with red on the blade.

"Like, there are three green ones, but one is a much darker green than the standard color of the other two," she explained. "They all do the same thing, but illusion stones need to be used in pairs, normally meaning two of the same kind to be effective. Dark or pale variants of a color mean they can be paired with another color entirely, which creates combined effects. Like, there's that one pale blue one, so it could be combined with the dark green one. Green represents plants and growth, and tends to create things like poison pollens or sudden plant growth while blue represents a state of clarity, like that _zone_ skilled warriors end up in, but not just battle-related, so you'll do things like notice someone is lying to you. Combining them will let you know exactly what effect to use and how, rather than having to guess or let them do their own thing. With how few we have, I can see why we'd want them to go to people who can use them."

"So what do the other colors do?" Rufus asked curiously as he watched her sort through them.

Meanwhile, Kunzel had tested the heft of the second blade and immediately put it back down, then tested the one with a wing-like hilt. As he stared at that last one, he absently cut into the discussion with, "This is an impressive blade for me. How did you manage to get your hands on such a good match?"

"You'll have to thank Minerva for that," the blond Turk replied dryly. "She seems to like putting things in my path, things like those." He looked back at Freyra and asked, "So, about the stone abilities?"

Freyra had separated some out from the set by then, including the dark green one and a golden yellow one. "Well, I told you green, and yellow is aura healing, or the healing of energy and emotions. Combining them creates many levels of healing by combining it with...I guess they'd essentially be herbal remedies. This is one of the best combinations we've got of the ones here. There's only one person I can think of who would make good use of this combination—Aeris."

As she'd been saying the last couple of words, the door had opened, and as soon as she'd finished speaking, the young woman in question asked, "What about me?" The others looked up to see her, Cissnei, Nanaki, Deneh, and Carbuncle in the doorway that time. They stepped inside, closing the door behind them, as Aeris peered curiously around the room.

With a small sigh, Freyra looked at Eden to ask, "Did he say anything about what I should do if I want to give them to someone who's not a Turk? Because I really mean it when I say Aeris is the best one to use the yellow and green combination."

"Will they work in a staff?" Eden asked curiously.

"If it's mostly wood, yes," Freyra agreed.

"Because of who she is, I'm pretty sure Tseng will overlook it. Especially because you've assessed what they do and determined those as best with her," the younger Turk told her. "He left their allocation in your hands, but if you're so worried about it, you should just _ask_ him. Before you do that, what else is here?"

The pale brown haired Lady Turk blinked and gave a small smile before saying, "There's an automatic pair for plants and for clarity, and with the remaining ones, our two remaining best pairs are the red with brown and the blue with white. Red is empathy, brown is taming, and white is time manipulation. Actually, the blue and white one can be scary in the hands of someone who knows how to use them, but I'd have to say Tseng himself is probably the best one to get them of those who would need them." She was silent for a minute before going on, "I'd actually give...probably Jessie or Shalua the clarity combo—the two blues. Reeve is very trusting, so if she had those and could tell who was lying, there'd be less chance of someone up to no good infiltrating their department, but it would be really suspicious if Reeve's behavior suddenly changed."

"That's a good point," Cissnei agreed. "So exactly what are those?"

"Illusion stones," Freyra answered dryly. She then sighed and gave her head a shake. "Rude is the one—besides Tseng—who would get the most use out of red and brown, with empathy for all living things and a corresponding ability to tame them, even if it's a milder effect than taming if that was all it was." She paused again, thinking hard about the last one with her brow furrowed in puzzlement. "The only use anyone would get out of the two greens would be the poison pollens. Reno's probably the best one to use it, and the only one who wouldn't get his knickers in a knot over 'artificial enhancements'—he'd milk their effects for all they were worth, and he's a close combat fighter, so he'd get more use out of it than someone like Ruluf or Emma. That's what I think it'll come out to."

"I'm surprised you aren't taking a pair yourself," Rufus commented as he eyed the sets of stones she'd laid out on the table as she'd explained.

"I'd only take a combo with orange—just orange or it paired with another color," she answered with a shrug. "Personal preference."

 **Notes:**

(1) Shapeshift built itself into a doozy of a monster Materia, but Fuhito only ever got around to using the first two spells because he wasn't trying to advance the Materia (that would have taken transforming himself, and he doesn't strike me as the type to want to bother, especially not if that would mean becoming female). This also means he has one of the 3 the Emperor had been aware of. Obviously, the Emperor has one. Anyone want to guess who has the third, since we know Eden is now the proud owner of the fourth? :D

(2) Yes, Godo is letting Eden walk away with a large number of weapons and other items known to be stolen Wutain national treasures. His reasons?

1) Most of the items vanished so long ago no one really expects them back anymore.

2) Eden brought back a national treasure for Godo, and a second one which always belonged to the Kaoins (Tseng's family) for Tseng.

3) Eden and the Turks are taking care of Yufi for him better than he could have ever imagined.

4) He likes and respects Eden in particular, and since Eden happened to be lucky enough to find all those items, he's willing to let Eden take them.

5) With the war over, Godo knows those weapons/items are going to allies who will be working with him to protect his people, which now includes the people in Icicle Inn and Costa del Sol for sure.

Of course, the shop Eden found wouldn't be there anymore if he or someone else went back to look, so this was a one-shot deal and just reminded everyone of Eden's 'God-like' degree of luck thanks to Minerva. Believe me, Eden _really wanted_ to find the God-damned Black Market and pretty much clean it out of anything of real value—these two chapters didn't want to be written any other way.

(3) Don't ask me—apparently Freyra was feeling playful when I wrote this, and Kunzel wasn't completely opposed. I'm not going to be indicating in the story line whether or not this will be a permanent relationship, so for now, just assume they're dating to have some fun and test whether they're actually compatible.


	21. 19-First Trigger

**A/N:** This one's a bit longer than usual, but there was really no good place to break it, not with what's coming next chapter.

First Trigger

"What are the other colors of illusion stones?" Kunzel asked as Freyra picked up the shotgun to examine it. "By the way, Eden, should we send our original weapons back to Midgar if we switch them off?"

"Yes, " Eden agreed. "I'm curious about the other colors, too. I know purple is weather-related, so that leaves orange and two others."

"Gray and black," Freyra filled in, looking amused. "Orange is 'true-sight', which means illusions of any sort have no effect on you and targeting is almost impossible to screw up. Gray manipulates density of the user, weapon, and anything touching the person, assuming you can gain so much control of it. Most things you have to _try_ to change the density of, though. Black allows for energy severing—shutting down spells, cutting off power supplies, negating a lightning bolt, and so on. Trust me, some of those things in combinations can create an ability which looks almost deity-like if you don't know what you're up against. Clarity and time is only one of those. White is one of the rarest illusion stones to show up, along with gray and black. Orange, red, and purple are in the category of medium rarity, and green, blue, brown, and yellow are the most likely to show up. By illusion stone standards, this set of ten is a windfall."

"So what else is new? I mean, this _is_ Eden we're talking about, here," Cissnei commented dryly, causing chuckles from Genesis and Freyra as Eden made a face.

"On another topic entirely, where did the three of you go to cause you to come back here a mess?" Ruluf asked curiously of Freyra, Kunzel, and Luxiere, who dropped his original blade into the crate after he'd switched his Materia to the new one.

"To the Materia Mine, of course!" Freyra grinned. "Kunzel has the Materia we got, but I'm pretty sure it's another one we have no prior record of."

"The Materia Mine?" several voices asked in surprise.

"Yeah, of course," Kunzel replied dryly. "A lot of Wutains actually have green Chocobos to get over the mountains. We rented a few, went out to the cave, found there was no more there than in the one north of the Corel Mountains, and headed back with the one Summon Materia we _did_ find. It was no more difficult than that, but the Chocobos were irritable and took us through the densest growth on purpose. It was more like riding acrobatics lessons, honestly."

The words produced chuckles before Eden asked him, "A new Summon?"

In response, the man drew the Materia in question and threw it to the blond Turk, who examined it closely in puzzlement before musing, "Atomos has a gravity-based power, which isn't unusual by the standards of the Planet because Gravity Materia is a fixture here. But you're right, this is a completely new Materia, a Summon we've never seen before. I wonder why it showed up here and now?"

"It had to've been forming in the cave for quite awhile," Genesis commented. "As in, a few years. Materia don't form quickly—even basics like Fire, Ice, and Lightning still take around four months to form when they do it naturally. Reactors speed up the process to about a month, but those are also sub-standard quality, and while we can use them just as well, they have discrepancies, especially in reliability. A natural Summon, even the—'weakest' of them—would have needed at least two and a half years to form in a Reactor core. I guess if Minerva directly intervened, they could form faster, though."

"I see. I guess it's true, then, that people miss things they aren't looking for," Eden shrugged. He then held the red orb up as he looked at Kunzel to ask, "So, do you want it back, or should I keep it?"

"You can keep it," Kunzel shrugged. "I'm a lightning user, so Zack gave me a Mastered Ramuh—I'm good with that one."

"Okay, thanks," Eden agreed, tucking it away. "So did you three collect the Enemy Skills while you were out?"

"No, we still have to do that with you," Freyra grinned. "In other words, on our next day off from meetings. One of the monsters we have to find is in the grasslands, and one's on the beach, so they shouldn't be hard to find. We could make a day of it, like a picnic or something, or we could go do that, then return here to do whatever from there."

"The Razor Weed's Skill will be the harder of them to get, though, because it only hits one person at a time. Manipulate could make it a lot easier since it'll let us choose who we're going to have it hit with its ability," Kunzel explained.

"We'll deal with that on our next day off, then," Rufus cut in. "Now, have all the gifts been allocated, and if not, who else is getting something?"

Eden sighed, then picked up three odd, clip-like devices with sharp edges and threw them to the ground at Deneh and Nanaki's feet. "You two can pick whichever you'd like of those, but your originals don't have to go to Shinra if you don't want them to." They nodded, so he picked up the last item, a staff made of a dark, rich, brown wood and offered it to Aeris. "If you want that, we'll have to get the blacksmith Shinra uses to add some fixtures to it for the illusion stones, but otherwise, you could start using it right away."

Aeris blinked and took the staff, testing the weight and heft of it as Nanaki and Deneh similarly tested the clips the blond had given them. After a minute, the brown haired girl said, "It's better than my current one, and if the monsters are going to keep getting harder to fight, this will help against them. What should I do with my old staff?"

"That's up to you, I would think," Eden shrugged.

"I don't want any of the clips you gave us," Nanaki said suddenly, making the others look at him. "They're good quality, I have no issue with that, but my—the one Grandpa gave me, which had been used by my father, is better. And it has sentimental value, if nothing else. Thank you for the thought, though."

"That's fine," Eden agreed. "As long as you're happy with what you have."

Right then, Deneh did an interesting trick to get one of the clips into her mane-hair in place of the one she had been wearing, then put her own in the small pack she'd taken to keeping on her. "This one is good for me. You can take the other two and send them off," she said as she pushed the two she hadn't chosen back towards the blond Turk. "It's much better than I had, so thank you! It'll definitely make fighting easier from here on out."

"Great," the Turk grinned, grabbing them and putting them in the box. "Does that mean everyone's done now?" A chorus of agreement came from the others, so he finished up by showing the group some items to do things like protect status or give extra shielding from elements. Once they'd all chosen what they wanted of those, he finished packing up the box, then went to get a servant to seal it and make sure it joined the shipment to Midgar.

It was only in the middle of the night when Rufus thought it might be a good idea to ask Godo if he had a blacksmith who could add the slots Aeris needed to her new staff.

FoW

It was afternoon three days after Rufus and his traveling party had left Midgar (1), and Evan, Yufi, Shelke, and Illis were walking through the Shinra building's lobby, intent on heading home. Well, Evan and Shelke were going to Yufi's with her and Illis because they were going to work on a group project together, but Yufi was heading home.

However, before they'd gotten far from the elevator they'd left, a voice near them said, "So you're the SND subject, Shelke Rui." The group turned to face the speaker, only to see a Wutain man who looked like he was in his forties, with long, black hair in a ponytail, glasses, and an over-all creepy expression made worse by the fact that he wore a doctor's coat. There was something like a half-smirk on his thin lips as he gazed with eerie intensity at Shelke.

"Can we help you with something, Professor Hojo?" Illis asked cordially before any of the kids could say anything. All the kids gave startled blinks and looked sharply at her, but Shelke immediately returned her gaze to the man warily.

"Ah, you're wary of me. Heard stories about me from someone?" Hojo asked, gaze still focused on Shelke. When she didn't answer, he said, "Well, come along with me, then."

"What if I don't go?" she asked timidly.

"That's not an option," Hojo replied.

Shelke paled and backed up, causing Yufi to move in front of her as she declared boldly, "She isn't going with you! Ever!"

"You don't have the right to refuse me. The moment you signed an agreement with Shinra, you also signed your lives away to us to do with as we will, and I've chosen you as an experimental subject. You should be honored to be able to advance the knowledge and capabilities of science, after all," Hojo answered with clear amusement. His gaze then hardened as he said sharply, "Now come along, before I call for support from SOLDIER and the Infantry."

"I have classes I'd rather not miss," Shelke answered, remembering what Genesis and the Turks had said she should tell him. "There weren't any terms in anything I signed for the Academy saying I became a slave for you to just take and experiment on whenever you wanted—you don't own me just because I'm going to school here."

A scowl darkened the man's face, but before he could say anything further, a new voice put in coldly, "The young lady is correct. I must insist you refrain from claiming the Academy student." A look in the speaker's direction showed Sephiroth as he gazed with cold eyes at Hojo from where he stood after exiting the other elevator not long before.

Hojo faced him and asked darkly, "And you think you have either the right or the power to intervene, Sephiroth?"

"I do," Sephiroth agreed evenly, not intimidated.

A long silence fell before the man said, "I suppose we shall see how long your defiance lasts for, my creation. After all, you're overdue for a meeting with me. We should get it done now." He started to turn towards the elevators.

"I refuse," the silver haired General stated flatly.

Hojo froze, then turned to gaze at him with barely contained fury. "You believe you have that right? Unlike the female, you _are_ the property of Shinra, _and_ my personal property, and you have _no right_ to refuse me. You _will_ come with me for your testing, and you _will_ do it now."

"I refuse," Sephiroth answered, gaze turning faintly amused. "First, not only do you _not_ have the power to force me to do so, but my contract terms _do not_ allow you to torture me for the sake of torturing me. As such, you have broken the terms of the contract on more than one occasion, making any requirement I may have had to uphold it irrelevant and unnecessary. In short, _I have no contract with you_ , only with President Shinra, and he has better uses for me than to submit me to _your_ sadistic tendencies."

There was a long silence before Hojo gave a malicious smile and said, "So I was correct. Pity. I shall return to my _other_ experiments, then. For now." He then turned and walked back to the elevator, shoulders hunched as he gave an extremely creepy chuckle.

Once he was gone, the others all blew out sighs of relief—then Sephiroth looked down at Shelke as she tugged on his sleeve, tears in her eyes. "I don't want him to hurt me!" she pleaded.

He rested a hand on her head and replied, "We have no intention of allowing him to do so, Shelke. You are safe." In response, she wrapped her arms around his waist to hug him tightly, crying softly into his belly, so he obediently put his arms around her to comfort her. As much as he took Genesis as his brother in all but blood, he hadn't expected the sibling relation to carry over to Shelke and Shalua as well, but it had. And he had found he didn't actually mind.

Yufi joined Shelke to lean on her back and wrap the gentler girl in a tight hug as she declared, "He's right, and he's not the only one who'll protect you."

"General Sephiroth!" a woman's voice called as she stepped out of the elevator. It was Lunaria that time, stepping out of the elevator opposite the one Hojo had left on. "Good, I caught up to you!" She then paused as she looked around at the group before looking at him again to ask, "What happened?"

"Hojo attempted to claim Shelke for his experiments," Sephiroth told her, and she made a face.

"Yes, we've known that was coming for awhile. He failed this time, but he's also been much more 'hush-hush' about his recent experiments, too. That's not why I'm here, though."

"Then why, Doctor Valentine?" the General asked curiously.

She gave a nod and said, "Doctors Kedran and Blythe are working through all the employee files and have found several people they want transferred to their care, including yourself, Shelke and Shalua Rui, young Cadet Strife, and others here. I've given one copy of the list to each the Turks, SOLDIER, and the Academy, as well as a few others, but I wanted to give you a heads-up so you realize they aren't planning to do invasive and intrusive tests. It also offers protection from Hojo, since them being moved to their care means he can't interfere with them. Not openly, anyway."

"Is there a commonality we all have which would allow such a tactic to be viable?" Sephiroth asked in surprise.

Her gaze was amused as she said, "They found one, a very shocking one. Well, there's more than one—three they've told me about—and every person they're requesting has one or more of them. Their greatest breakthrough was when they examined Cadet Strife's file and asked him for a blood test, only to find his body would reject the current Mako infusions and he'd be refused entrance to SOLDIER without some genetic therapy first."

"That is...surprising. Any protection from Hojo is better than none, however," the silver haired man commented.

"That's certainly true," Lunaria answered in amusement. Her gaze then went to Shelke as she told the girl, "They also asked me to give something to you, young Shelke Rui. I don't know what it is, but they said you'd feel safer with 'it' on you." She then pulled a paper-wrapped, long, narrow, tube-like package from a pocket on the inside of her doctor's coat and offered it to her.

After a moment, Shelke wiped her eyes and let go of Sephiroth so she could take the package—and her eyes widened in shock before she smiled and looked up at the woman to say, "Thank you, Doctor Valentine. They were right to say I'll feel safer."

"Good," the woman smiled. She then looked at Sephiroth again and said, "When you have a free moment, check with Cadet Strife to see how he's holding up—the news he got wasn't the greatest and he could use the support with no Eden to turn to. I think he and Anthony were planning to go to Anthony's place."

"I will. Thank you, Doctor," the man agreed.

"I'll be seeing you around, then," Lunaria agreed, gave Sephiroth's shoulder a pat, then turned to go back to the elevator.

Sephiroth faced the younger group and said, "You had best head out." With a nod to them, he headed for the exit doors quickly.

"Let's go. I have a call to make once we're in a more private setting," Illis said, herding the group of kids out of the building after Sephiroth. The General had already vanished by the time they got outside.

As soon as they had returned to Yufi's residence, she called Tseng to update him on the incident with Hojo.

FoW

Tseng sat in his office, rubbing his eyes tiredly just after hanging up the call with Illis. He'd known there would come a time that Hojo would eventually approach Shelke, but had hoped it would take longer. Their saving grace was really in the way their Academy kids tended to travel in 'packs', and in how the two Deepground doctors they'd saved had been telling the truth about not having been there because they had _wanted_ to see people suffering. At the moment, that gave him time, and his allies time, to figure out how best to handle the situation.

If he was completely honest with himself, the situation truly felt like it was spiraling out of control, no matter how hard he tried to keep a handle on it. Veld had told him before resigning that, with things the way they had been after the raid on Deepground, there was a good chance Tseng was going to get a 'trial by fire'. The warning hadn't been in vain, and that was currently what the Wutain was trying to weather, given how many things he had to try to keep an eye on and work some sort of damage control with.

Hojo wasn't going to keep waiting forever to get his hands on Shelke, nor was he likely to just let his 'prized subject', Sephiroth, get away from him. If anyone actually thought they were going to be _safe_ with the intervention of Doctors Kedran and Blythe, they were fools, because Hojo wasn't the sort to willingly hand off anyone or anything he'd claimed. No, what they'd gotten was 'time' to figure out how they could possibly work against Hojo's retaliation for the attempt to take his 'subjects' from him. Tseng, knowing how Wutains tended to react to such things, knew they'd just earned Hojo's enmity and a backlash easily as bad as anything Fuhito had dumped (or would later dump) on them—it was just a matter of what he'd do and when.

They had far more problems to deal with than those, as well. If Eden had managed to get the shipment of items to them, he would be very happy when it came in, because they'd need the bonuses from them desperately to even _hope_ to weather what was coming. Even if they'd ended the Wutai War, with Hojo and Fuhito looming on the horizon and President Shinra most likely on their hidden hit list, they were going to have a problem, and lately, problems seemed to get dropped on them in multiples. How many people were going to die by the time they were done? Hopefully not enough to trigger Omega—Vant was turning out to be something akin to a Goddess-send, but if he switched to the state known as Chaos, all bets were off, by Vant's own request.

How in the world did Vant think they could possibly defeat a being as powerful as Chaos, when it had to be at least as strong as the Lifestream itself?

Having no answer to that question, he turned his thoughts to the situation with the traffickers they were trying to track. The Turks had ended up in altercations with a few prominent groups more than once, as well as random stragglers and go-fers, but one in particular was a very literal thorn in the side. It hid its core leadership well, giving it the opportunity to reform again several months to a few years later, so no matter how many underlings they took out, it was an endless fight. It was worse than Corneo's persistence, as at least they _knew_ Corneo was the head and could take him out if needed.

It didn't help that there were several other groups of traffickers of various sorts—drugs, weapons, other valuable goods, humans, animals, and so on—but those were more localized groups with smaller networks, and destroying one caused a new one to take its place, not new members of the same group to step up. He thought back to a discussion he'd had with Kariya back around the time Eden had crashed:

FoW _(flashback)_

 _Tseng was sitting in his office doing some paperwork when a knock on the door frame made him look up to see Kariya. The man stepped into the room and closed the door, then offered him a few discs. "Thanks for these, Kariya," Tseng said with a nod at the man as he took them. "How did things go?"_

" _Most of the runners were shipping things north, towards the northern continent, but it didn't sound like they were going to Bone Village or Icicle Inn. Judet has been noticing pretty regular strangers picking up occasional goods in the latter, though. We'd need better equipment to search the area more thoroughly," Kariya explained._

" _What kinds of goods are the runners shipping? Weapons?"_

" _Everything from rare monsters to science equipment and tech parts to drugs and weapons. Even people, I think, but the human traffickers have gotten good at avoiding us. I don't think we'd be able to do anything to find out more on that side unless we set up a sting to catch them."_

" _Hmm..." the Wutain murmured with a small frown, absently gazing at the discs he held. "That's another point. I'll have to see how things go shortly, when I get in touch with Quis and Judet. Take a break for a bit and visit with your kids—unless there's another mission you feel you_ must _do right now?"_

 _Kariya gave a snort and said, "No, I'm good for now. Visiting the munchkins will be good. See you later, then." He gave a wave and left as he pulled a cigarette out, and Tseng just sat back in his seat for a minute, sighing tiredly._

FoW _(end flashback)_

Some Turks were assigned to tracking the targets they had of other groups, but Kariya and Vant tended to be the ones tracking anything to do with that persistent group—the same one Kariya had given him data on that day. Vant especially had some sort of vendetta against them, having told Tseng that he was _sure_ his generation of Turks had taken them out. If Kariya was right, however, and they were trading off goods to Fuhito, not only did they have to try to track that to its source, but they had to stop the exchanges. It left them the question of what Fuhito was giving them in exchange for their goods, especially if he was now running short on funds after being cut off from both Rufus and his sources in Wutai.

Tseng had also had to take some of the Turks off the search for Fuhito, mainly leaving it to Balto in Midgar, Vant and Kariya wherever their targets were, and Judet and Quis in the north. He often had Balto and Rude switch off with Kariya and Vant when they needed a break. While a few Turks were still running their usual fare of missions (for those not in the main office, finding SOLDIER candidates and gathering intel for Turk missions), most had been sent scouting to fill in data for the SOLDIERs being sent on missions. And for some reason, they were being sent on _a lot_ of missions lately. They had thought they'd have a reasonable number of people in reserve after the Wutai War had ended, both in SOLDIER and the Turks, but instead, monster attacks were on the rise, and it took the Turks' ability to go unnoticed and track information to prepare the SOLDIERs for what they'd be going into.

It was puzzling. If anything, with what they were fixing, the monster attacks should have been _decreasing_ , not almost doubling in a few weeks. The Firsts who had become such due to the Deepground Raid were being worked just as hard, or very nearly, as whichever Commanders were available at the time, and even the Seconds and Thirds were being run pretty much to their max. They were just _tired_. If it was true that the monsters were Jenova's creations and she wasn't quite dead yet, this could well have been her retaliation, her death throes. There was a good chance of that, which also meant they had to find her last anchors before she managed to completely overrun them with sheer exhaustion.

To complicate matters further, it had taken the Turks a long time to find or track anything to do with their internal spy who had been leaving the black listening boxes around, because the only lead they'd had, even by using the cameras, had been people who were unidentifiable and not registered to Shinra. They had caught a couple once they had realized they were using some of the Turks' own disguise tricks against them, but those people had capsules of poison in their mouths, which they used to end their own lives before they could be questioned. Finally, after several failed attempts to do more than retrieve the records of the discussions recorded on the devices, they had simply pulled down and destroyed all of them, also doing bug sweeps across the whole building to find less obvious listening devices. They had found more than they had expected, and destroyed those, too.

Things were bound to get much worse before they got better, and Tseng was beginning to wonder if this was a symptom of whatever Minerva had been worried about, way back when Aeris had told Eden about her worry.

They could still only keep moving forward in the hopes that things would turn out well in the end.

Tseng looked down at his desk to see the new request for help he'd gotten from Reeve. There were strange fluctuations in the energy output levels of the Mako Reactors, and while Reeve had managed to stabilize them, it hadn't been by finding the problem, it had been by diverting a small portion of the system to be taken by the drain so peoples' power supplies weren't affected. He and his people were still looking for the source of the problem, but it seemed to be external, leading to the assumption that the Turks now also had to find someone who was trying to hijack the Reactors. Someone who wasn't Fuhito.

He sighed, only to be jolted out of his thoughts by Reno asking, "Doin' alright, yo?" He looked up tiredly at his red haired second-in-command, who commented, "Looks like you could do with a good sleep, Bossman."

A faint smile formed on the Wutain's lips as he said, "I'd like to, believe me, Reno. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to work out well at the moment."

"Ya ain't gettin' any brownie points by wearin' yourself out, yo," the younger of the pair answered dryly.

"I know _that_ , too," Tseng agreed. "It looks like Hojo has made the first move to try to claim Shelke. And to attempt to reclaim Sephiroth. There are so many aspects to what's going on right now that I'm honestly feeling overwhelmed by it all."

Reno cocked his head to the side, then shrugged and said, "You knew he'd do it. And we're the Turks. It's our business ta keep it all straight, yo. If ya can't, you really need ta rest."

"That's easy for _you_ to say when you don't have to assess all the data and give all the orders to keep everything running smoothly," the Wutain Turk replied in amusement.

"So let me give it a try while you get some rest, yo," Reno offered with an impish grin. "Ya know I'ma good commander 'n' tactician. Gimme a chance ta _prove_ it while ya get some shut-eye, yo. I can't mess somethin' up badly in one night."

Tseng gave him a faint smile, then turned to look at his computer screen thoughtfully for a minute. "If I do this, you'll have to be brought up to speed on some things you hadn't known or been dealing with before, which is going to mean you'll have to delve into quite a bit of paperwork. Is that okay with you?"

Reno made a small face, then gave a shrug. "Paperwork's a must for Turks, yo. Gotta do it, no matter what. If I'm gonna be the next Director, I'd better start gettin' used ta it, right, yo?"

The older man's brows rose into his hairline as he commented, "That's a surprisingly mature reaction about paperwork from you, Reno."

"Hey!" Reno glared at him, but it wasn't very heated, more like mild irritation.

"What changed?" Tseng asked curiously.

The red haired Turk was quiet for a few long moments before he reached up and rubbed the red mark off one of his cheekbones, showing the scars hidden beneath it openly for the first time. (2) He then pulled his hand away and looked down at the red on his fingers as he said, "Things're changin'. I'd been—like a kid just playin' a game before. 'Cept now the 'game' ain't no fun anymore 'n'...it just hit me that a buncha people're probably gonna die all at once, yo. Found _that_ out the hard way in the Slums."

"I beg your pardon?" Tseng asked in confusion, gazing intently at Reno.

"Went out ta one o' my usual haunts, yo. Shoulda been same ol' same ol', but on my way back, some creepy monster tried ta take a bite outta me," the red haired Turk answered. "Ya, monsters in the Slums ain't uncommon, but those're all Mako-crazed or just—normal. For Midgar, anyway. This one was different, yo. It wouldn't fuckin' go _down_ , no matter _how_ many times I shoulda killed it, and when it was recoverin', I couldn't attack it. Somethin' was keepin' it from dyin', an' I only finally got ta kill it 'cause it was small—a Funny Face—'n' stuck in Pyramid. I wouldn't even call it healin' like the SOLDIERs get, 'cause it ain't. An' it seemed—electrified, I guess, yo. If that's the sorta thin' poppin' up now—there ain't no 'game' no more. If a Behemoth like that turned up, we'd be royally screwed."

The Wutain Turk rubbed his eyes tiredly with a sigh as he said, "And that's one _more_ problem. It's the first one of its kind I've heard of, anyway." He dropped his hand and looked up at Reno as he said, "Fine, if you're really game to take over here for awhile, I'll bring you up to speed, then get some rest. While you're here, do up a formal report on the monster and the issues you encountered during the battle. I'd like to have it by morning so I can forward it to the people who need it."

"Will do, yo!" Reno agreed with a grin and nod, moving around the desk to stand beside Tseng as the man showed him the new data he needed. As he did, Reno rubbed off the other red mark so his scars were visible on both sides of his face.

 **Notes:**

(1) Keep in mind that this is happening later the same day Eden found the Wutain Black Market—and Midgar and Wutai City are exactly 12 hours apart, with Wutai being ahead by that much. Eden called Tseng around 6AM Midgar time, and all of this is happening after that time.

(2) This is Reno coming closer to what he looked like in FFVII and later in the timeline, with his scars showing instead of bold red marks. I'm not even going to try to guess why he even has those scars, so feel free to make up whatever history for Reno that you like.


	22. 20-Banora's Goddess Materia

Banora's Goddess Materia

In the end, the group in Wutai had two more days of meetings, then another day off, during which they went out to get the Enemy Skills off the—grass bundle-like monster called a Razor Weed and the massive turtle called an Adamantaimai. The Razor Weed gave them the Skill Magic Hammer, which reduced the target's casting energy, and the Adamantaimai gave them Death Force while under the influence of Manipulate, which prevented instant-death attacks from working for a time. They then had two more days of meetings before leaving Wutai to stop over at Junon for three days for the President to hold video conferences with Rufus. From there, they were off again, that time to go island hopping.

First, they flew down to a small, desert island on the south of the map, where they found cactus monsters—cactuars—and a Summon Materia known as Siren (1). Their next stop was the Temple of the Ancients, where Eden began searching around for clues to get it to open. On their third day there, he told Libby to take a holographic image of the Temple, inside and out, so he'd be able to keep searching without the group needing to be there. Libby did so, then they left for Mideel. Freyra eagerly showed them around the friendly village, and Eden bought the Contain Materia he found in the shop there before they found rooms for an overnight stay.

The following day, they headed to Banora, where Genesis at first refused to get off the Highwind, only giving them directions to the shops and the Inn. Eden found an Independent Materia he'd never heard of before called Item Boost (2), so bought it before returning to the airship to work with Genesis on the arrays for Felicia and Zirconaide. The two made some progress on it with Libby's help with the projections of the arrays, but they were interrupted that evening by Aeris walking into the room they were in with meals prepared by the Innkeeper.

"Are you planning to stop long enough to eat and sleep?" she asked them teasingly as she put the basket with the food in it on the end of the table they were sitting at.

"Oh, is that food?" Genesis asked a little too innocently.

"Of course!" the girl grinned. "I come bearing gifts! You'd better eat it while it's still hot, now!"

"Fantastic! You are my Goddess!" Genesis pronounced enthusiastically as he retrieved the basket and opened it up to begin pulling out the food she'd brought.

"Are you talking to Aeris or to the basket of food?" Eden asked in amusement as he snatched what looked like a travel package of noodles and meat sauce.

"Why, the food, of course," the red haired man answered with a pout.

"I don't think Minerva would be happy to know she was so easily displaced in your affections," Aeris told him with a wide grin which bordered on a sly smirk.

Genesis froze for a moment, then blinked and looked up at the brown haired girl in confusion before he gave a very real smirk and replied, "On the contrary, my dear Flower Girl. You see, everything on the Planet is produced directly by her from her energy, which means we _should_ be worshipping everything around us as parts of her. This is literally a 'bounty from the earth's bosom', and worshipping it—and staying healthy in the process—is the same as worshipping her directly. Also, I rather think she would prefer we stay as healthy as possible so we can keep helping to save her. She wouldn't produce healthy food for us otherwise."

Aeris began giggling at the words as she said, "Now I know why she likes you so much. Anyway, enjoy your meal and rest. Also, since you're going to be otherwise occupied, I'd like to borrow Libby to see the letters Elder Bugenhagen said she has for me from my parents?" Her gaze moved to Eden at that, seeing how his amused grin became a startled blink before he finished chewing and swallowing the food in his mouth.

Once he could talk without displaying his meal to them, he said, "Sure, you can have a look at them." He then picked Libby up to whisper her true name to her to unlock (or re-unlock) the holographic system for Aeris' use. "Go along with Aeris, Libby, and let her have access to Professor Gast's and Ifalna's letters to the Elder."

"Okay!" Libby agreed, then turned to look at Aeris from her place on the table. "Where are we going?"

"Back to my room on board. Thank you Eden, Libby," the brown haired girl said as she reached over to pick up the dog-rabbit-ish robot. A moment later, the two were gone, so the two men ate in peace.

After they finished eating, Eden eyed Genesis for a moment before asking, "So what's here in your hometown that would make you want to avoid it so severely?"

There was a silence and a shadow over the red haired man's eyes for a moment before he sighed softly and said, "It's exactly _because_ it's my hometown."

"...It is?" the blond Turk asked with a blink, then yawned behind his hand.

Genesis gave him a look which was a cross between amused and apprehensive, then shrugged and said, "My family, the people who—raised me through my childhood—didn't adopt me because they _wanted_ me, and especially when I was young, they were really cold to me. It amounted to neglect, and it was obvious they didn't care back then, though it began to ease off later on. I kept wondering, asking myself—and Angeal, too, sometimes—why they even adopted me in those circumstances. I never got an answer to the 'why', but they...I'm not entirely sure where I stand with them anymore, but it's not really more than maybe 'friendly', and I don't think I'll be welcomed back, because even that was kinda iffy. Also, most of the town wasn't that fond of me because I was so different, so flamboyant."

For a long moment, Eden gazed at him—he almost fell asleep, too, making him wonder what was wrong with him lately—then thought of something and asked, "Do you think seeing them now, to ask them those questions, would give you closure, or would it open the wound more?"

"What?" Genesis asked in surprise.

"...A lot of people push someone who was hurt to go back to whoever hurt them, like a woman who was raped meeting her rapist again one last time. That can actually be as damaging or more damaging than the initial rape was, so I'm not so sure that's a good policy to push on people, but there are ones it helps, too. I don't have the details, but...you need to decide whether it'll hurt you more to find out or to avoid them and move forward without ever having an answer. How important is it to you to know? It's possible to just let all of that past go and move forward from there, with a blank slate, if you think that's what will hurt you the least," the younger man explained. "What do _you_ need to do?"

For several long moments, Genesis just stared absently at him, gaze unfocused and obviously turned inward. Finally, he rose and said, "I'll ask them one more time, and if they don't answer, it'll be time to cut all ties. Come with me, please?"

"Okay," Eden agreed, also rising and following the older man from the room and off the airship to head to the Mayor's manor, the largest home in the town.

At the door, the red haired man hesitated, then drew in a deep breath and lifted his hand to knock on it. After a long silence, as they were about to leave, the door opened to reveal a dark haired woman with dark eyes and faintly tanned skin. She was just starting to gray, but her eyes widened in shock and she suddenly threw her arms around Genesis' neck. "Genesis! You're all right, strong, healthy...Why haven't you sent us _even one letter_ to let us know how you were doing? We only knew you made it to Midgar and into SOLDIER because of all the news articles about you and Angeal!" she burst out as she hugged him.

After getting over his initial shock, the younger man lifted his arms to wrap them around her, saying quietly, "I'm sorry, Mother...I was...torn between thinking I would be welcome and thinking I wouldn't be, so I couldn't..."

She let him go and leaned back to look him in the eye sadly before saying, "We did a lot wrong when we raised you—back when you asked why, we couldn't...Well, we've decided after all these years that it's probably better for you to know why, but that's a private discussion for later this evening. But for now, you should come in and talk with us, tell us how you've been doing. Come in—you and your friend are both welcome."

Genesis turned to look at Eden, just to see him covering another yawn. His gaze turned faintly amused as he said, "You really _are_ tired, Eden. Would you rather just go back to the Highwind and rest?"

Eden raised a brow at him and asked, "You're fine from here?"

There was a short pause before the older man nodded. "I think I will be. Thank you. If you really need the rest, though, you should take it."

"We'll have all day tomorrow to rest," the Turk shrugged.

With an amused shake of the head, Genesis answered, "Don't count on it, since I'm _sure_ we're going to be going spelunking tomorrow."

"Oh, for—boys!" the older woman scowled, but her lips were twitching. "You never change, do you?"

"Not really," Genesis chuckled. His gaze went back to Eden questioningly.

"...Fine, I'll go sleep. Enjoy your visit," Eden agreed. He looked at the woman and said, "It was nice meeting you, Ma'am. Hopefully there'll be more time another day for a longer visit." He then gave them both a wave and walked away, looking back only once to see them both stepping inside the house.

Soon after, he had made his way to the inn and gotten a room there where he could sleep for the rest of the night.

FoW

Morning came far too early as far as he was concerned, and Aeris actually had to dump a pail of cold water on him to wake him up. Once he had recovered from the sudden 'dunking', the two of them joined the others in the main room of the inn, Genesis with them and looking a little tired but otherwise well. "So, are there any other places to explore before we head to the Materia Mine in the northeast?" Rufus was just asking as Eden and Aeris joined them to begin eating the breakfast the others had thoughtfully ordered for them.

"There are stories the villagers tell about caves beneath the town," Kunzel offered.

"I heard that, too," Ruluf agreed.

"So did I," Cissnei added.

"And?" Rufus asked them with a slight frown.

"The entrance is on the outskirts of town, and there's something there which I don't think Shinra ever really bothered to look into. I've never gotten past the inner door myself because it has a reset time and one or two people can't normally gather the keys fast enough before it expels them all over the cave system again and you have to start over," Genesis filled in.

A long silence followed the words before Aeris asked, "You wouldn't happen to know what's in there, would you?"

"Nope. Something someone—probably Minerva—thought was really important, though," Genesis answered.

"What did you mean about keys being expelled around the cave system?" Rufus asked with a small frown.

"I think either the majority of the cave or about half of it is outside that door, where we can access the keys," the red haired man told them, looking faintly amused. "The door's made of something like a cross between metal and stone, as is the pillar the keys go on, and there are seven of them. They're special Materia shards which have a built-in time limit to how fast all seven need to be gathered and inserted into the pillar in front of the door. If you can't gather them before the time limit is up, the shards are transported magically to other random locations within the cave, and you can't take them out of the cave from the front door—they'll just vanish from your hand and reappear in a random place in the cave. With the number of us here and how easily we'll be able to fight off things like the bats in there, we should be able to do it."

There was a silence before Rufus finally sighed and said, "We should at least be sure there is nothing valuable there, then."

"Sure," Genesis agreed, rising. "Follow me, and brace yourselves to do some walking in water. It's not deep, but our feet _will_ be soaked through by the time we're done."

A few of the others made faces, but they all headed out to the cave entrance, which was to one side of the dumbapple tree fields, in the side of the hills to that side of town. It first led down, turning back on itself in the general direction of town, but rather than stopping at the first junction in the cave paths, Genesis led them along a specific route. Soon after, they came to a pillar in front of the doors he'd mentioned. While most of the cave was dark, bluish stone, the pillar and doors were brown, and everyone could see the seven Materia slots, with one at the top and the other six running down the sides in pairs, each pair further apart than the pair before to form an up-side down V. From each of those seven slots was a band trailing over the face of the pillar and down its front side to the floor, where they spread to different spots around the door.

It was at the pillar where they 'arranged parties' to look for the seven Materia shards, though Aeris decided to run off on her own because everyone was trying to be so protective of her. Shortly after she ran off, Carbuncle began exploring the walls, wandering off in Aeris' general direction as it did. Genesis said they should hurry and gather the other keys so it would take the pressure of monster mobs off the young Cetra without 'helping' her directly. Cissnei was put out that Aeris hadn't let her go along with her, so the Commander sent her to the area closest to the path the other young woman had taken. It was decided Rufus, Dark Nation, and Kunzel would stay at the pillar and door to establish that as their safe zone, something they did willingly as it would mean they'd get the least dirty. Stray Hope, Cait Sith, and Libby stayed with them as non-combatants.

At that point, Freyra pointed out that it may be best to keep their exit clear, too, so she volunteered to keep that path clear of monsters while occasionally stepping outside the entrance to make sure no monsters from outside would join them. Nanaki joined her to do so, since it was a long route and could become a second safe zone for the others if needed. That left Genesis, Eden, Luxiere, Ruluf, and Deneh to hunt for the last five Materia shards which would unlock the door, each of them working independently and quickly.

Aeris, to everyone's surprise, had been the first to return, perfectly healthy and unharmed, with Carbuncle wandering back into the area of the pillar several minutes later as the Summon hunted along the walls for something. What the creature was looking for was anyone's guess, and it had left the room again soon after. Rufus vowed to Aeris to never take her as weak or in need of protection again, even as Kunzel watched on while snickering in amusement. Genesis was the next to return, then Ruluf, followed closely by Luxiere, then by Eden. Deneh and Cissnei came back together, both looking like they'd fallen in the same pool of muck and both looking very annoyed. As they were about to send someone to get Freyra and Nanaki, they returned with a very pleased-looking Carbuncle.

The whole process had taken about fifteen minutes, so they began placing the shards in the pillar—and watched in no little amount of awe as the door shone in several places and opened by sliding sideways from the middle. It opened into a large cavern with a raised section and a statue of Minerva, but unlike the one in Aeris' Church, this one held in its hands a massive Materia shard easily two to three feet in diameter, which looked mostly translucent, cloudy white with flickering red lights inside it. The cavern at least didn't seem to have been filled with water, and the floors were smoother than the ones in the rest of the cave had been.

However, as they entered the chamber, something seemed to howl and a massive object like some sort of airship of the battle variety appeared in the middle of the cavern, taking up most of the space above the statue. It was in largely gray metal, but they couldn't see its top to know if it was the same color, and its multitude of spikes and weapons were intimidating. The first thing it did after appearing was to somehow release another howl and a wave of laser-like, dark beams. Everyone had to act quickly to dodge the beams.

Genesis was the first one to launch attacks on it, burning its hull so it was streaked with black as it released an angry howl. The others quickly joined in, but Aeris just stared blankly up at the 'ship'.

As it howled again in pain at the onslaught of further attacks, Aeris suddenly yelled, "Stop it! Stop attacking it!"

"We're a little busy trying to keep it from killing us, Sweetheart!" Freyra shouted back.

Aeris frowned at them, then shook her head and tapped into both her energy and the Lifestream's, causing her to glow with green-white light before the light flared and filled the cavern. Silence fell as everyone was blinded, then the light burst and wings spread away from everyone, including the 'ship', before the wings burst and the feathers vanished in light. Everyone had been healed by the action, and more than that, they had been calmed, even the 'ship', which now sat peaceably above them.

Suddenly, from the statue of Minerva, there was a flash of light before everyone was swallowed by darkness which quickly cleared into flowing bands of green-white energy—raw Lifestream. In front of them, there appeared a woman who resembled the statues in the Slum Church and the cave they'd just been in, but she was in full color and 'in the flesh'. Her gown was white with many armored pieces in gold across chest, shoulders, hands and arms, and feet, and there was a staff in her hands which was topped by a large, crescent-like blade anchored mid-crescent to the staff. She had pale skin, Lifestream green eyes, medium blond hair, and her features were delicate and strong at the same time.

 _:Greetings, travelers,:_ she told them, but her mouth didn't move, leaving them to realize she was talking straight into their minds. _:You have all been working so hard, you and your allies. You are about to experience a great loss, yet your journey must proceed as planned, your tasks of the utmost importance to the fate of my world and its people.:_

Her gaze turned to Aeris as she said, _:Thank you, my Beloved Child. Your strength and kindness are a blessing and boon to this world. The Limit Break I have given you access to is the most powerful of those which you would be capable of learning. It is called by me Great Gospel, and will repair even fatal damage at least once, providing needed calm and needed shielding of the highest degree for a time after being cast on your allies. Use it when you most feel the need, but only sparingly until your body has adapted to accessing a skill of such power. Never forget to protect your own life, even before the lives of your companions, my Beloved Child.:_

Again, she paused, then looked at Eden. _:Ancient Sentinel, I fear more influenced you in the stagnant Mako cave than merely the physical injury you suffered. I have taken steps to produce something which I believe will assist you, though it yet needs time to form, and while producing it meant modifying my original project there, I feel this is far more important. You shall discover it in the north. I pray I have correctly assessed the mental and emotional damage the stagnant Mako wrought in you and its cure before it becomes truly harmful to your well-being. Also, I shall impart to you a few details to use or pass on to your various helpers for your 'projects'. I am uncertain as to how to apply them beyond this.:_

Her gaze moved then to Genesis and a hint of a smile formed on her lips. _:I am pleased to see you looking so well, my Judge. You have grown strong, though your obsession could do for some tempering. Find your own peace within yourself and leave all of your past hurts there. You have never needed to carry them with you.:_

To everyone's surprise, her gaze then moved to Rufus. _:Prodigal Son of the Star-Travelers.:_ She paused to gaze at him evenly, almost sadly, before going on, _:You have so much potential to do so much good, if only your reason was 'for the sake of doing so.' My teachings to my children have been lost in time, yet only one with influence such as yours has the ability to restore those teachings. As you are now, you are not willing. Regardless, my Ancient Sentinel has done you much good, and I shall impart that knowledge to you, knowledge you shall only become aware of in stages as you are willing to accept it. Please attempt to open your mind to bring true change to a world of suffering.:_

At the words, Rufus cleared his throat and said quietly, "I'll give it my best effort, but circumstance may cause it to take awhile."

She gave a nod to him, then turned her gaze to Deneh and Nanaki. _:Children of the Cosmo Candle, you both have a sacred path ahead of you, and there are some things you both must know. One is that there are others of your kind who have been in hiding since the time of the Calamity. I have imprinted the location of the entrance to their home to you, and once this situation has been resolved, you may seek them out. There is one other surprise with them, though it may not be safe for the surprise to actively reemerge for some time after the others of your kind, the Moto Tribe, have reappeared.:_

Her gaze went to Nanaki specifically as she added, _:You have led yourself to believe your father was a coward who ran from the battle against the Gi Tribe at the time of your birth. He was not a coward, but a hero who stood alone against the assault of the Gi through the rear caverns leading into Cosmo Canyon from below. Follow in his footsteps and be proud of him, to be his son.:_

Nanaki dropped to the ground in shock at the words, so she looked around at the others with them to say, _:Thank you, all of you, for everything you have done and everything you will yet do. You and all your allies have been far more of a boon than I had ever imagined, and regardless of the fate of this world, know you have still produced a much better result than would have taken place otherwise. All of you have saved so many more people than would have been saved had things not come about this way.:_

She then looked up at the device, the 'ship', above her and said, _:This entity was an unexpected creation formed by the remains of intelligence of a sort left behind by the star-ships which arrived here long ago, after the Calamity came. It came about recently, and has the general form of what you call a Summoned being.:_ She turned her gaze to Eden to say, _:You are collecting Materia, and this is one creation I would very much like to keep now that I am aware of it and its nature. Please take Ark and take care of it.:_ A red Summon Materia formed in front of Eden as the 'ship' funneled its energy into the orb, and once Ark had formed fully into the Materia, Eden grasped it.

 _:I have one other requirement of you,:_ Minerva said to them, but her gaze was focused on Genesis and Eden. _:There are three Materia which are unusual besides the ones for Chaos and the Weapons. Those three are this Materia here, the White Materia, and the Black Materia. This one is to remain untouched as it forms the heart of Omega should the need arise, and will travel with me elsewhere intact. White and Black, however, are both world-destroyers I should never have created and must now eliminate. Once you know of the rapid method of reverting them to raw Lifestream energy to return them to me, please do so._

 _:White is safe currently, and will be given to you upon the discovery of the method. Black, however...it is the Temple of the Ancients and will slaughter the one who resolves the puzzles to retrieve it, an act which will also destroy the Temple. Prepare yourselves well, and forgive me for creating such a force. That error in judgment has pained me since soon after I made it, yet without your assistance, I am unable to rectify it myself. I am sorry for placing you in such a position as this.:_

With that, she vanished, taking the swirling lights and the darkness with her. They blinked and found themselves back in the cavern with the Materia and statue of the Goddess.

Genesis and Eden traded ill expressions as the blond said, "Well, it looks like it wasn't actually an accident we arrived here, but—that last point is really a downer."

"We should go rest," Cissnei said, her breath coming in short bursts. The others looked at her worriedly, but she just shook her head.

"I don't think we're ready to look too closely at what just happened," Ruluf agreed quietly.

With those words, the group slowly trudged out of the cave, removing the Materia from the pillar as they did so, which allowed the door to close. By taking the shards out of the cave with them, they allowed them to teleport randomly into new places inside it.

The remainder of that day and that night at the Inn in Banora wasn't a good one for any of them. Most of them were pondering what Minerva had told them in the cave around wondering what was happening in Midgar...

 **Notes:**

(1) This is a Summon I added to the story, but it also appears in other FF games. As a general rule, she does minimal damage and causes Silence, has wings for ears, and is holding a lyre—a small, hand-held harp, basically.

(2) Item Boost exists in Crisis Core, so like with Aero and Water, I didn't think it would be unreasonable to have it appear here. It's an Independent which increases the effect of an item being used, generally by double—a Potion, which restores 100 (or 'a small amount of') health would give 200 instead, for example. Also, this could be very useful for our crew!


	23. 21-Monsters in Midgar (MiM): Waking

**A/N:** For those having trouble keeping track of the rapid jumps in passage of time, these next several chapters are happening the same day as the previous chapter (in Banora), but 16 days after the incident with Hojo trying to claim Shelke and Sephiroth (which was the same day Eden found the Wutain Black Market). The time difference between Banora and Midgar is 4 hours (yes, I put time zones on a world map of Gaia to do this assessment), with Banora 4 hours ahead. That means 10AM in Banora (the approximate time they met Minerva) would have been 6AM in Midgar, and it's now about 11AM in Midgar, so around 3PM in Banora. It's February 16th, if anyone was wondering.

Anyway, the folks in Midgar have one Hell of a day ahead of them, so...Let's get this 'Monsters in Midgar' arc started! It was hard to work out the best order of scenes for this massive event, so bear with me. This is also one of the very major plot points which helps in deciding the fate of Gaia in both paths. Double post today, in the interests of getting this moving, but be prepared for a lot of cliffhangers as this goes on.

Note: Every monster I used except one is a registered 'experiment' Hojo created and Zack fought on (optional, I think) missions in Crisis Core. They're just...'super' versions of those. See the end of the chapter for the list of them.

 **Readers of both SH and FoW:** it would be best to read this arc fully in both paths, because even for all the similarities, there are significant differences, and perspectives which sometimes appear in one but not the other version.

Monsters In Midgar: Waking

"Well _that's_ disturbing," Felicia sighed as she stood over one of the crates she had sliced open just outside 7th Heaven. Several other members of Gaia's Refuge stood with her, staring in stunned horror at what they had found.

What they actually stood over now was an Abyss Worm (1) which had been drugged into unconsciousness. It was colored black with yellow stripes and was effectively a giant worm with a very large, circular mouth full of sharp fangs—the body and mouth were large enough to swallow a grown man whole. When aware, they were burrowers which could move to their prey through the ground below them, then come up right under their feet.

As if that wasn't dangerous enough, she had already tried to kill it once, and the immediate blow and fatal damage had been nearly immediately undone, leaving only surface lacerations—and those were healing at about the same recovery rate as SOLDIERs had. When she'd tried attacking it while it was recovering, the blow had glanced off it and done it no damage, as though it had an invisible shell covering its body. Once it had finished recovering, she attacked it again and got the same result as the first time, including the shell when it returned to its recovery state.

Her mind flashed back to the report Tseng had sent her from one of his Turks who had fought a Funny Face (2) in the Slums showing these same traits. Was this one of those? The only way she'd know was to try it a few more times and see if she'd get its recovery rate to start slowing down.

After going through the process of attacking it several more times, she found the process was indeed following the pattern from the Turks' report—and they were now all breathing clean, clear air in the surrounding area (Wasn't _that_ just _strange_?)—but it still hadn't died. And it had started—sparking? Yes, it was 'sparking', like it was filled with an electrical charge.

She pulled out her PHS to send a request to all her members around the Slums (none should have been on the Upper Plate at the time), to ask for local reports from all Sectors on similar crates to the one she'd found, even as she scanned the area for the next nearest set of crates to her.

"Go break open those crates next to the Inn," she said as she indicated a few of her members, so the three of them headed across the street.

That morning, as they'd done their rounds in the Sector 7 Slums, they'd seen _a lot_ of very new-looking crates scattered around which she _knew_ hadn't been there the day before. They had all appeared literally overnight, and while a few new crates wouldn't have been noted as strange (it was fairly common to see daily turnovers of as many as ten crates in any one area), in Sector 7 alone, she'd seen approximately a hundred. Hence her deciding to open one of them to start with. As the people she'd sent across the street broke those smaller ones open to reveal several more monsters, those ones Sahagins (3) and Blood Tastes—or clones of Dark Nation (4)—she sighed. To further her sudden bout of exhaustion, all her agents across the Slums were reporting back no less than two dozen crates in any one area.

Now that they knew the contents of the crates, the big question was where so many had come from. Even if she took into account all of the Science Department labs (several floors of the Shinra building were allocated as lab space, not just sixty-seven and sixty-eight), there wasn't enough space in them for the sheer number of monsters, let alone ones as large as Abyss Worms. If all the crates held monsters, which they likely did, they had just been put in a situation akin to all the monsters of the Northern Crater being suddenly dropped on them...

With the realization, she sent a message to her people to prepare themselves for battle against a mass mob of monsters fitting the Turk report's description of 'just won't die', then turned to the Abyss Worm again—as it woke up. So did the Sahagins and the Guard Hounds, and all the still-sealed crates began to shake and break open. Monsters were suddenly all over the city, and they were all ornery. In the air were Evil Eyes (5)—which had green bodies, two legs with clawed feet, a reptilian tail, two bat-like wings, and one giant eye above its fanged mouth—and Evilgoyles (6), which were brown and reddish-brown Gargoyles. Funny Faces had joined the Sahagins and Blood Tastes, which she'd expected from the Turks' report, but there was at least one Abyss Worm in addition to the one she'd already damaged—

And a Death Claw (7) a few streets over. A Death Claw, like an Abyss Worm, could dive underground, but the distance it could go to its prey was shorter and it was less adept at underground travel. However, it made up for that by being singularly more deadly in battle, as it resembled a cross between a humanoid and a spider. It was colored in pale browns and steely grays, and while its spike-tipped arms could be used to assist its movement, they were weapons—eight powerful, sharp spears. Of the monsters in the Slums, those two, the Abyss Worm and the Death Claw, were singularly the most dangerous, the largest, and the ones most difficult to handle, to defeat.

"Fight the monsters here and try to get people to shelter! After I finish with this bastard, I'm going after the Death Claw, then the other Abyss Worm! Keep your eyes open for more of their ilk and let me know immediately where they are!" she yelled as she brutally struck down the Abyss Worm she'd already damaged, sending it back into recovery.

There was agreement from her people as they scattered to fight monsters and round up the panicking civilians.

Since she had a free moment because of the Abyss Worm's recovery, she sent a text message to Tseng about the monsters in the Slums, then turned back to her battle. She just hoped they weren't yet so tired from all the other monster attacks lately that it would become a losing battle before the Turks had a chance to find their weakness.

And she was sure it would be them to do it, investigators that they were, and with access to Hojo.

Either way, even with all her people working on fighting the monsters, getting into the other Sectors was going to be difficult, no matter how she looked at it, and she could only pray someone would help organize and protect people in other Sectors until Gaia's Refuge could get there and help.

FoW

Zack was whistling an old, favorite victory tune from Gongaga as he made his way off the train at the Sector 5 stop on the Upper Plate, planning to catch an early lunch before heading back to Headquarters. He'd just beaten up some of the monsters in the Slums—another round of them, anyway—and wanted to relax for a bit before being sent on his next mission. The best part of being a First was how he had plenty of money to spend, so he didn't really begrudge the massive amount of work they'd had lately. Of course, he was really the only one who could fully 'keep up with' the pace, and that was at the cost of some of his Materia Mastering time and energy, but he still got to do some of that, too.

Right, the Mastering. He hadn't expected to have so much energy to start with, but since he did, it was logical for him to supply the others who were in the know about the real state of the world. Tseng had suggested he get 'the kids' Mastered Final Attacks and either Revives or Phoenixes first and foremost, so the last time Eden and Genesis had been in Midgar, Zack had gotten those from them to get babies off of. Both had been working on other things, so he'd been free to Master those, then produce the requested Materia for the kids and their non-combatants. After that, tactically speaking, they also needed more combat and Summon support for their combatants, who were all used to protecting themselves and knew the risks they were taking.

When Zack had asked some of the Turks if they wanted the safe-guard combo, they'd almost all said 'maybe later, what I'd really like right now is a...' and given him something else to produce for them. Tseng had looked amused by Zack's obvious confusion, but had made a list for Zack to take back to his room with him. For some time while Eden and Genesis had been away, he'd been working on the list Tseng had given him, and on more Mastered elements (though they were random) for Ed's experiments.

At one point, he'd even thought of taking one of the Final Attack and Revive pairs he had left over (one to be kept for Rufus and Ruluf respectively) to slot on himself, but then thought it would be redundant with him being a First and having survived the raid on Deepground. It was then when he'd realized what the Turks had meant when they said other things were currently more useful to them. Yeah, he could have used it, and it might even have activated at some point to save him, but in reality, he was a soldier expecting to die sometime, and it was far more useful to him to have things he could use to protect others. Like Carbuncle, as strange as that one seemed. Or Unicorn, though he'd left a Mastered one of those with Reno the other day for a reason he couldn't fathom rather than using it himself.

The discussion he'd had with the smirking, red haired Turk had reminded him of why he avoided Reno in 'creepy mode', especially when the older man was fascinated by two green stones now fixed to the hilt of his EMR.

An early lunch was a much nicer thought to focus on.

As he was leaving the station's front doors, a rather large crate which had been left against the outside wall near them suddenly rocked, causing yelps and alarmed shouts from people nearby. He was sure it hadn't been there when he'd taken the last train into the Slums at two in the morning because the Infantry had called for help. When the crate rocked again, people began scattering away from it and Zack, frowning as he felt something was very wrong, diverted from his path to head towards it.

A moment later, his instinct proved him right as something in the crate roared—and the crate exploded in bits of burning, metal-reinforced wood. What was left behind in the crate's place was a Behemoth (8), a very angry one, and obviously full grown, given how it was nearly twice his height at the shoulder. It had a short furred, largely dark purple, heavily muscled body with a large-cat-like face and a dark maroon mane running down its spine from head to shoulders, where the spine grew a small, fin-like ridge running down to the tapering tail. Its eyes glowed yellow and it had large, metallic, black claws, fangs, and forward-pointing horns over a foot and a half long.

There was the sound of breaking wood and more screams from behind him, making him turn his head to look—and he had to stare in shock as he realized there had been many, many more monster crates up and down the street. They had _also_ broken free and were quickly scattering around the city streets, from airborne Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles to the grounded Blood Tastes, Epiolnises (9), Funny Faces, and—Bombs? No, normal Bombs were simply a large ball of fire with a jack-o-lantern-like face, but these ones had blackened faces, so they were a more powerful relative of the Bomb called a Destroyer (10).

"...Well _this_ is sure a mess," Zack sighed, drawing his sword and facing the Behemoth again. "First off, the Behemoth. I can get the small fries later." That decided, he charged at the monster, dodging its attempt to maul him and bringing his blade down on its lowered head, then using the impact to throw himself back and out of its range.

Even though the blow caused the Behemoth to collapse, Zack felt like something was wrong, so as soon as he landed back on his feet, his gaze returned to the monster again. His sword strike should have had the power behind it to crush its skull like he'd done to other Behemoths in the north, but somehow, it hadn't. Both its feet and tail were still twitching in a way more like an animal dreaming than like shock waves of the death running through a nervous system which hadn't fully shut down yet, making him frown.

At that moment, a pair of Blood Tastes—though one was black, not the red of a normal Blood Taste—jumped at him from behind, so he spun rapidly to strike them down with blows which should have gouged out their sides. Instead, the 'gouges' healed so rapidly they had been reduced to shallow lacerations in moments, and even those were healing rapidly. Rumbling from the Behemoth's direction made him turn to face it, even as it became more mobile and began trying to push itself up.

Zack sighed at that. "Looks like I won't be getting a meal _or_ going after the small fries anytime soon, will I, big guy?"

The Behemoth, having largely recovered and faced him again by then, roared and jumped at him, so he darted toward its unprotected chest and belly, slicing both open. He jumped back as it collapsed again, but the same thing happened to the wound as the twitching started up again, and this time, he tried to attack it while it was still down, finding how his blade just bounced off it. He had to divert momentarily to kill the Blood Tastes again, and found the same trend with them, too. Oddly enough, the smog in the area seemed to have gone down substantially.

 _What_?

Either way, he had to report to Lazard about the similarity to the monster in the Turks' report, so while he had a bit of a reprieve during the Behemoth's and Blood Tastes' recovery, he pulled out his PHS and dialed the SOLDIER Director's number. Soon after, the man answered with, "Was there something you needed to report, First Fair?"

"Yeah. I was on my way back from my last mission when a few dozen crates near the Sector Five train station broke open and released a bunch of monsters which just won't die. One of them's a Behemoth, so I have to stay on it or it'll rip a hole in the city. I think they're _all_ the same as the ones from the monster report the Turks sent over to us, and the problem is that there's no way I can go after all the small fries until the Behemoth stays down," Zack explained, eyes on the Behemoth's twitching paws warily as their movement range increased.

After a momentary pause, Lazard replied, "I'll see who I can send to help you, and yes, please focus on the Behemoth, as you're right to say it's the most dangerous one."

"Yeah, thanks," the black haired young man agreed, then hung up and pocketed the phone as he faced the rising Behemoth, then looked back at the Blood Tastes as snarling sounded behind him. "Take a hike, would you?" he asked them.

They snarled again and jumped at him.

He cut them down again, then shrugged and commented to no one, "I didn't really think it would be so easy, but I could hope."

It was the Behemoth's turn to jump at him, so he faced it and braced himself, knowing monsters could learn—he knew if it wouldn't die in one blow, his fight was bound to get progressively harder as it went. "This is going to be a _looong_ day," he sighed as he caught the Behemoth's horns on his sword.

Zack then grinned a bit at the thought of the challenge, all the same.

FoW

As he stepped off the airship on one of the landing strips built off the end of the Sector 1 Plate, Kariya smiled, happy to be home. It would be good to rest while Balto took his watch, and he'd have time to visit with his kids this time, too. Well, with Shalua and Shelke, as Genesis was still off on a world tour with Rufus. Since he was in no hurry to get anywhere, he moved at a relaxed pace and meandered his way through Sector 1 towards Shinra Headquarters—but on his way, something in the city began to change. What made him start paying attention to it was the way it sounded like chaos, destruction, and screams, but there was no one direction any of it was coming from.

Near him, some people ran by from side streets, being chased by monsters—and a small Infantry patrol intercepted the monsters. It seemed the monsters were made out of tougher stuff than normal, though, because they got back up again from bullet wounds which should have killed them. Towards the city core and in the direction of the Sector 1 and Sector 8 border, Kariya heard a great deal more noise of destruction than he had a moment before. Since the monsters in his immediate vicinity were less difficult to handle (Evil Eyes, Blood Tastes, Epiolnises, and Funny Faces), he left those to the patrol unit and headed for the major noise.

It didn't take him long to reach a corner in view of the destruction—where he had to stop and stare. There was a _Behemoth_ in the middle of the street, holding a car battery in its mouth while ignoring three Destroyers as they poked around in the rubble left behind by the Behemoth on its way to its current location. A look down the large monster's path showed that it had pretty much bulldozed every building in a straight line between...the Sector 1 train station?...and its current location. Yes, it was the train station he could barely see at the end of path.

A Behemoth. On Midgar's Upper Plate. He knew there was a herd in the Sector 8 Slums bordering no-man's-land between Sectors 8 and 1, but not on the Upper Plate.

With a motion, a bomb dropped from his sleeve into his hand, and he very deliberately paced forward in the Behemoth's full view so he could attract its attention. The ploy worked, causing the monster to drop the battery and turn to face him with a snarl. As it jumped at him, he dodged its claws and stuffed the bomb in its open mouth as it tried to bite him, intending to make quick work of it. The resulting explosion came as he landed after jumping back, and it was a satisfying sound, given how that one should even have done in a Dragon Zombie.

Except, as he watched in shock, the explosion damage nearly entirely reversed itself in moments, even as the monster collapsed to the ground, twitching like it was only dreaming. The remaining surface lacerations were healing more slowly, but it definitely wasn't dead. When he threw another bomb at it to try to finish the job, the explosion glanced off it without harming it—and he sighed.

"So these are Reno's hard-to-kill buddies," he commented to no one.

The Behemoth was getting more mobile already, so he had to make a decision quickly. His best bet was to call Tseng, so he pulled out his PHS and dialed the younger man's number—which was answered as the monster jumped at him with an almost painfully loud roar. On pure instinct honed by decades in battle, he slipped his PHS into his pocket as he dodged away from the Behemoth's attack, shoving another bomb in its mouth as he did. A moment later, as he was just landing outside the monster's claw range, the explosion sounded, followed by a half-roar as it collapsed again. Knowing it would be down for at least a bit of time—hopefully long enough for him to talk with Tseng—he pulled his PHS out of his pocket again and held it to his ear.

Knowing Tseng would still be on the line, he said in a clipped tone, "Just thought you'd like to know there's a shit-load of monsters which just won't die running around the city, and the big nasty I'm fighting right now is a Behemoth. And no, I'm _not_ going to use my plasma bomb (11) in the middle of the Sector One Plate."

"Monsters which won't die? Like the one Reno fought before in the Slums?" the younger man asked sharply.

"Yeah, probably," Kariya agreed. "You'd better get all the backup you can into the city, though. Now, I'm off since I've gotta focus on this fight." He then hung up and faced the Behemoth again as it began to recover and move a little more than just twitching.

He could only hope it would die before he ran out of bombs—and the interference of the Destroyers was an unwelcome addition to the situation, making him sigh as he thanked every deity and Summon he could that Turk policy was to keep a spare weapon on hand at all times. His handgun was about to get _a lot_ of use.

FoW

Midgar.

It was a city of hope, dreams, comfort, advancement. So Shinra proclaimed, and so the uninitiated believed when they first arrived there.

It didn't take long for the dreams of the new hopefuls to shrivel up and die in the face of the reality of Shinra's cruel and ruthless rule hidden behind a genial facade. The city was full of darkness, depravity, and a massive underbelly (literally and figuratively) of crime, vice, poverty, and suffering. Much of that was Shinra's doing directly, but some of it was the doing of the people bred in that cesspit.

Tseng sighed as he rubbed his eyes and asked himself again why so many human traffickers thought they should take up the job when, if he was completely honest with himself, Shinra held the monopoly on the 'slave trade', too. He was starting to see Eden's point about stopping the massive degree of suffering in the world. To that end, the 'gifts' Eden had sent from Wutai for SOLDIER, the Turks, and Reeve had all been getting quite a workout, just in the time since they had arrived.

Sometimes, he wasn't sure if something was praising him or mocking him, though, for Eden to have sent him the jeweled tiger statue with the odd note he had. It had said the blond had planned to give it to him from the start, but the Emperor had explicitly stated said statue rightfully belonged to the Wutain Turk. The tiger was now sitting on a shelf in the corner of the room, but far more valuable to him were the two gems he'd gotten Weapons to make slots for on his gun, a milky white one and a dark blue one.

At that moment, his thoughts were interrupted by his PHS ringing to let him know he had a text message, and by the ring tone, it was from Felicia, so he opened it to check what it said—and he blinked in surprise as he read: _Monsters which won't die in the Slums, all Sectors, minimum estimate per Sector = 100, send help or find weakness_

Before he could answer, his PHS actively rang to let him know he had a caller, so he checked the caller ID, then answered it to ask, "What—"

He didn't get any further than that before a roar blasted through his phone, followed by an explosion, then another, weaker roar. A moment later, the man who had called him said in a clipped tone, "Just thought you'd like to know there's a shit-load of monsters which just won't die running around the city, and the big nasty I'm fighting right now is a Behemoth. And no, I'm _not_ going to use my plasma bomb in the middle of the Sector One Plate." It was Kariya—a clearly displeased Kariya.

"Monsters which won't die? Like the one Reno fought before in the Slums?" the younger man asked sharply, getting up to go to his office window.

"Yeah, probably," Kariya agreed. "You'd better get all the backup you can into the city, though. Now, I'm off since I've gotta focus on this fight." He then hung up, even as Tseng stared down at the scene below him in shock, absently hanging up and pocketing his phone.

 **Notes:**

Monster Legend Part 1 (monsters introduced this chapter):

(1) Abyss Worm (Experiment 115), found in the Slums

(2) Funny Face (Experiment 118), found on the Upper Plate and in the Slums

(3) Sahagin (Experiment 112), found in Shinra Headquarters and in the Slums

(4) Blood Taste/Dark Nation^ (Experiment 97/122^), found in Shinra Headquarters, on the Upper Plate, and in the Slums

(5) Evil Eye (Experiment 111), found on the Upper Plate and in the Slums

(6) Evilgoyle (Experiment 119), found on the Upper Plate and in the Slums

(7) Death Claw (Experiment 116), found in the Slums

(8) Behemoth (Experiment 88/110), found on the Upper Plate

(9) Epiolnis (Experiment 117), found on the Upper Plate

(10) Destroyer (Experiment 120), found in Shinra Headquarters and on the Upper Plate

Monster Legend Part 2 (monsters to be introduced later):

* Makonoid (Experiment 121), found in Shinra Headquarters

* Ifrit (Experiment 113), found in Shinra Headquarters

* Qliphoth (Sephiroth Clone, Experiment 124), found in Shinra Headquarters

All of the monsters in this list have many multiples except for 4 of them. There are 10 Makonoids, 2 Behemoths, and 1 each of Ifrit and Qliphoth. I just HAD to give 'Experiment 124' a name after how he's been modified, and since the Qliphoth is 'the refuse of the Sephiroth' based on Hebrew 'Tree of Life' data, I figured Hojo would be twisted enough to use that as his 'name' after what he named Sephiroth.

Don't worry, the three 'monsters' in the 'Part 2' list will show up later in this scenario.

^Dark Nation here isn't referring to the enemy in Crisis Core which ended up being a breed of Hound-type monster called a Dark Nation, this means Hojo took samples from Dark Nation, Rufus' pet black Blood Taste, and began using them in his experiments. This occurred when Dark Nation was injured and Hojo was ordered to treat him. There is no 'breed' of Hound called a 'Dark Nation' in my story, though a similar creature will show up later (the Cerberus, which has the same color pallet as Dark Nation and this Experiment). For now, no one knows much about the Cerberus, and they sure as Hell don't have samples of it—they barely know it exists.

(11) For anyone who doesn't realize this, the kind of bomb Kariya is thinking about here is very small, but about as powerful as a nuke—if he sets it off in Midgar, he'll single-handedly incinerate a large part of the city and drop the rest. As much as it would incinerate the Behemoth, it would also be highly counter-productive.


	24. 22-MiM: Insanity

**A/N:** Since I know this is going to come up, here's a quick list of the people of note who are in Midgar right now in the Fates of Worlds path:

Turks: Tseng, Alvis, Reno, Emma, Maur, Illis/returning Turks: Kariya, Vant

SOLDIER: Lazard (non-combatant), Sephiroth, Sora, Zack, Anthony, Cloud, (others, including Sebastian from Before Crisis)

Execs: President Shinra, Heidegger, Hojo, Palmer, weapons head

Other employees: Deepground Doctors Kedran and Blythe, Lunaria Valentine, Jessie, Biggs, (others)

Civilians: Elmyra Gainsborough, 'the kids' (Elena, Tifa, Shalua, Shelke, Yufi, Evan, the 13-year-old experiment), (others)

Gaia's Refuge: Felicia, Shears, (others, approx. half of their total members)

Various unnamed Infantry/mercenaries/criminals

Monsters in Midgar: Insanity

Tseng assessed what he could see of Midgar through his window. The city always seemed to be awake and had a green haze hanging over it, even on the clearest of days. The neon lights scattered over the shining gray of the city always seemed somewhat dimmed by it. Now, there were streams of dark smoke rising from several areas where the neon lights had gone out and the gray shone clearly in bright sunlight. There were literal patches clear of Mako smog in all the damaged areas, and while he could see movement across much of the city, the details were blurred at his distance. Of everything he _could_ see, the attack and damage happening all around the city was most of it.

He could guess the flying shapes were Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles, and some of the fires in the city could have been Bombs (or their relatives), but those would be bad enough if they were in the category of 'just won't die', and to add to that a Behemoth...

What was the Lower Plate really like if this was the state of the Upper Plate?

Suddenly, he felt the Shinra building rock as the sound of an explosion reached him, causing him to reach out to grip the windowsill until it passed—and until the sense of vertigo it had produced in conjunction with him looking out the window passed. His eyes closed as he realized the monster assault wasn't just in the city, it was in the building as well. Even for the number of people who were there, they'd been so overworked lately that they were all going into this while running on fumes.

Well, there was nothing for it—it had to be done.

Pulling out his PHS again as he headed for his office door, he saw Emma open the door as she was about to likely ask for orders. "I'm aware of the situation," he said as he shooed her out and stepped into the main office behind her.

"And the situation?" she asked.

All the Turks who were there looked to him to wait for further instruction, so he told Emma, and the rest by extension, the situation as he knew it, "Monsters like the one Reno fought in the Sector Eight Slums are running around the city—lots of them, on the Upper and Lower Plates, and right here in this building. That is, these ones don't die easily, so I hope you all read and _paid attention_ to Reno's report. First and foremost, Emma, go alert the Infantry to the situation and make sure all hands are armed and out there fighting. I need to coordinate with Lazard before anything else, so the rest of you will have to wait for orders."

"Right. I'll be back after doing that unless you give me other orders before I return," Emma answered, then ran from the office.

The Wutain gave a small nod in her direction as he dialed Lazard's number—which was answered almost immediately with, "I'm guessing we're under attack. What do you know as of now?"

"The city and building are under siege from monsters like the one from the report I gave you not long ago," Tseng replied. "I sent Emma to issue a call-to-arms to the Infantry, but unfortunately, we need _everyone_ , rested or not, because this ranges from the Slums to the Upper Plate to here. Have you gotten any reports about such monsters from any of the SOLDIERs on missions in the city?"

"Zack is apparently fighting a Behemoth just outside the Sector Five train station, but I haven't heard anything from the others who were out in the Slums doing more monster cleanup," Lazard shared. "Of course, that could be because they're too busy with the sheer number of attackers."

"There are _two Behemoths_ on the Upper Plate...?" Tseng asked tiredly as the other Turks traded alarmed looks. He rubbed his eyes and mentally tapped the blue illusion stone he now had on him. With its advice, he asked, "Who do you have immediately present?"

"Sephiroth and Sora, a few other Firsts, most of the new Thirds, and a few Seconds. There are ones resting who I can call. Angeal is escorting Reeve in Gongaga, so even if I called him, there's no way he'd get back in time to be useful," the other man said.

"Fine. You're a non-combatant, so you'll have to coordinate from our office with help from the cameras to know where you need to send people to. I'll initially leave Reno in his office here so he can let you into our command center again, and Sephiroth can help you get here. I need Sora to meet me at the stairs while I do my required rounds to check on the executives, and once you're here, our best bet to stabilize this place is for Sephiroth to start clearing upwards from here, then back down. I'll give Emma further orders to go help Zack since she'll be near him to rouse the barracks. For the rest of your people, spread them out around the city Sectors, both Upper and Lower, and have some stay here on lower floors, like the Hospital and Academy floors, to protect them."

"I'll work on that, then head over. It shouldn't take long. Expect to see Sora shortly, and good luck," Lazard agreed, then hung up.

Tseng immediately ended the call and dialed Emma's number, which she answered with, "What do you need, Sir?"

"When you're done with the Infantry, head over to the Sector Five train station so you can help Zack manage a Behemoth," he told her. "From there, any further orders you get should come from Lazard unless you take independent action, which I'll authorize all the Turks to do in this situation."

"Got it," she agreed, then hung up.

He also ended his call and looked up at the others as he found the 'call addresses' for text messages to all the Turks currently known to be in Midgar so he could send them all approval for independent action, which was Turk code for, "If you see something you know needs to get done, do it, regardless of orders from anyone else except me."

While he was typing, he said, "So, you've heard a few basics. Reno, you'll have to stay in your office until Lazard gets here, but after that, I need you to head for the Sector Eight Slums to help get things under control there. What you do from that starting point is up to you by the terms of independent action." With a nod, the red haired eighteen-year-old who now wasn't covering the scars on his cheekbones below the corners of his eyes quickly left the Turks' main office.

As he sent the message of independent action—which nearly everyone viewed immediately—he noted the others in the room, only Maur and Alvis. "Maur, Kariya is also fighting a Behemoth, his on the Sector One Plate. I would hazard a guess and say the train station would be a good starting point to find him. Go give him a hand, first and foremost." The large, brown haired man with a bit of a beard nodded and left as he tugged on black gloves.

Turning to Alvis, Tseng said, "Alvis, head down to the Sector One Slums—it, with Eight, are the two least-defended Sectors and will benefit most from Pyramid. Make sure you report back on the state of things so Lazard will know he'll have to send more help to that Sector if it's needed." With a nod, Alvis headed out, so he sighed and said to himself, "I just hope the help Lazard sends to the other floors will be enough to keep the kids at the Academy safe. Reasonably so, anyway..."

As he was heading into the hall, a segment of the roof tore and fell, what looked like a—Makonoid?—on it, causing him to yelp and draw his gun to shoot twice. Apparently, it wasn't intent on fighting if its prey could fight back, so it ripped a hole in the floor below it and fell lower down. Quickly, he turned to head for the stairs, sighing as he realized the holes likely meant their hidden space was going to be a mess by the time this was over, and he just hoped the monsters weren't going to ruin their paper trails. It didn't take him long to get to the stairs, and he'd passed a couple other holes on the way, but not many—wasn't that a bit strange?

Stepping into the stairwell, he found he only had to wait about a minute for Sora to come up from below, then both headed upward as she joined him with a nod.

"So, where do we begin?" the woman asked.

"As much as I'd like to say 'the next floor up', regulation says we have to head to the President's Office first and work our way down. For once, I'm extremely glad neither Reeve nor Rufus are here right now. If we _don't_ go right to the President first, he'll know something's wrong, and I don't want to give him ammunition." Tseng then paused and blinked as he repeated, "Ammunition!" and pulled out his PHS to call the head of the Weapons Development Department.

When the other man answered, he said, "We have a monster crisis going on in both the building and all Sectors of the city, and your department has plenty of weapons and ammunition, so start pulling out the big guns to fight them off." When he had agreement from the man, he hung up and pocketed his PHS again. They had kept moving upward the whole time.

It didn't take them long to step out onto floor sixty-nine—which both immediately saw was devoid of life, but there were no monsters, no holes in the floor or ceiling, and no signs of battle or struggle. Trading wary looks as they both realized this was very strange, the two headed across the lobby to the last set of stairs leading to the President's office.

When they were about three quarters of the way across it, a voice snarled from behind them, "You Wutain bastards! You're here to attack the President, aren't you?" Both turned in surprise to see Heidegger near the elevator doors with a shotgun in his hands, a shotgun pointed at them.

"Mr. Heidegger, this attack is being perpetrated by monsters, not humans, and I'm here as the Director of the Turks to verify the well-being of all present executives, beginning with the President, as per regulation. I asked Commander Kagawa to assist me in case there were multiple monsters or ones as powerful as Behemoths," Tseng replied evenly, wondering what in the world was wrong with the man. He'd known the man didn't like Wutains, but Heidegger was normally very practical and reacted to what was in front of him. Unless it was just because he hadn't seen or heard anything of the monsters, so assumed it was humans—Wutains because he loathes them—causing it...

"A likely story!" Heidegger sneered, pacing closer to them. "Now get down on your knees and beg for mercy like the dogs you are! Down, I say! Kneel and learn your place or I'll kill you slowly and painfully!"

"Sir, we need to be sure the—" Tseng began calmly and respectfully.

The next thing he knew, Sora's weight slumped against him as the shotgun went off and his ears began ringing. He reached up to catch her as she fell, causing both of them to drop to the floor on their knees, the woman still leaning on him—which wasn't normal for a SOLDIER, let alone one formerly from Deepground. Looking down at her back, he was able to see a large, ragged hole surrounded by singed cloth, causing him to realize the shotgun was loaded with explosive cartridges, not buckshot.

As Heidegger shook his head to clear it (it was some comfort to know the man was in no shape to act again, either), Tseng cast a Full Cure on Sora to allow the wound to heal faster. She stayed leaning against him, just using the fingers of one hand to trace an old, Wutain code on his hip to thank him and tell him to hide her recovery. She had a point, as not only would it likely cool some of his anger if Heidegger thought she was still injured, but it would give the Turk and SOLDIER the advantage of surprise.

Before anything further could happen, around the time all their ears stopped ringing, a new, royally angry voice yelled, "What in the world is _this_ all about?" They all looked up to see President Shinra standing part-way down the stairs leading to his office, glaring at them. "What in the world did you do to the Commander and Director, Heidegger?"

"I just put those filthy Wutains in their place, where they belong!" the head of the Public Safety Department hollered.

"We already own them, and they've performed well and loyally, Heidegger. They also have work to do, work _you've_ just hindered!" Shinra replied with another glare.

"They still have too much power! All of them have too much power, and I can't believe you made an agreement like that with their Emperor! You haven't enslaved and collared them like you swore we'd do, you haven't even put them down in shame and submission with the war, you let them get away with changing nothing at all! They aren't slaves or under your control, so I'm going to make them learn their place, starting with these two!" Heidegger barked out angrily, pointing his shotgun at the two Wutains again.

Was Heidegger even _sane_ after going on a—frankly shocking—rant like that? (1)

"I had always assumed you were speaking figuratively when you said you wanted them enslaved and collared, not literally," the President replied in a disgusted and disappointed tone. "You're demanding something which is not and never truly has been beneficial to us, and with Godo's proposal, I gained my power over them and their land. I won't jeopardize the benefits to the agreement for the sake of you and your dog collars, Heidegger, because they're of more value to me on their feet than on their knees. I thought you knew that?"

A long silence fell, then Heidegger gave a barking laugh and said, "So even you're too weak to take the power of a Master over them." His gun began moving.

At that moment, the blue illusion stone triggered, showing Tseng that Heidegger meant to shoot the President, so he purposefully activated the white illusion stone to slow all the time around him without slowing himself. It was the reverse effect of a Slow or Haste spell, and he was deliberately modifying the flow of time so he had just enough time to draw his gun and point it. He wasn't very good at manipulating the effect yet, and he was only barely going to be able to make the shot—but he was able to shoot the man between the eyes only a moment before he'd pulled the trigger on his shotgun.

All at once, the explosion sounded, causing him and Sora to both yelp and clap their hands over their ears as the President shouted in alarm and ducked, arms shielding his head. At the same time, Heidegger's body fell heavily to the floor and stilled, but there was a hole in the wall beside the President, showing just how close Tseng had cut it, but also that he'd managed to successfully divert the shot. All three stayed down, covering their ears or head as they waited for the ringing in their ears to fade, all while ignoring Heidegger's body.

When the elevator opened, they all heard the noise from it and looked up to see Vant step off—and stop to stare. The others recovered and rose, Tseng saying to the older Turk, "Heidegger tried to kill the President over the deal he made with Wutai."

"...I see," Vant agreed. "Now, since you didn't answer your PHS and we're in the middle of a crisis, what do you need me to do?"

"That's right, what in Shiva's name is going on here?" the President asked angrily. "First, Hojo runs cackling through my office and disappears onto the roof, then the building rocks, then Heidegger tries to kill me! What's next, a meteor falling on the city?" (2)

Tseng, Vant, and Sora all stood there staring at him in shock—which quickly became dawning realization for Tseng and Vant. "Mr. President, there are abnormal monsters assaulting the city and building, and after hearing you mention the Professor's behavior, there's a good chance they're the results of his latest experiments. With your permission, I'll send Vant to check on Hojo, then retreat to your personal defense while the Commander and I check on the other executives present right now."

"Since there are no monsters up here, feel free to do as you wish," the President replied, then turned and headed back up the stairs. He called back on his way, "Oh, and do something about the body's mess soon, too!"

Tseng sighed tiredly as Vant started after the President, but the Wutain called softly after the older Turk, "Vant, try to find out what he did to the monsters to make them so bloody hard to kill, then find an opportune moment to eliminate him. We _can't_ afford to have something like this happen to Midgar _again_."

Vant turned his head to meet the Wutain's dark eyes and gave a single nod, then faced forward again, all without pausing. As he went, Tseng pulled out his PHS to send him the note about Turks operating on independent action currently, and found that the man checked it right away.

As he put his phone away, Sora asked, "So, now we work our way down from here, yes?"

"Are you healed enough for that?" Tseng asked in reply, knowing an explosive shot like the ones Heidegger had been using could even kill SOLDIERs at point-blank range, which was nearly how close the man had been to her.

"With your Full Cure, yes," the woman nodded. "Shall we?"

Nodding, the man agreed, "That's the best bet. Also, right below us is the Science Department floors, and some of Hojo's assistants may know the monsters' weakness." The two turned towards the stairs again since they were fairly certain they would still be free of monsters, hopeful either they or Vant would have a solution to the problem soon. "By the way...why did you take the shot meant for me?"

"Really?" she asked him with a raised brow, and Tseng just stared at her. Sora gave a small grin and said, "Very simply, SOLDIERs are built like tanks—no matter what kind of damage it is, we stand a better chance of surviving than a normal human like you does. Of _course_ I would take the shot meant for you."

"I see. Then, thank you for that," he told her, the gratitude in his voice. She gave a nod and a small smile in reply.

FoW

Since Rude had arrived to replace him on his watch, Vant headed back to Midgar to report in and get a new assignment. It didn't take him long to get there, and with his capabilities, he made quick work of climbing up the outside of one of the Reactor supports, the one for Sector 2 he realized as he headed away from it and into the Sector. His route to the Shinra building was calm, though he was sure some event or other was starting up somewhere else in the city. With the smoke rising from several places across the Plate, he was sure it couldn't be good, so he picked up his pace to Headquarters, intent on finding out what was going on and what he could do to help.

He reached the building in record time, using the elevator from the lobby to reach the Turks' floor—but it was while he was on the glass elevator that he realized what was going on, and he could only watch in horror. In Sector 1, not that far away, a Behemoth rampaged as three Destroyers followed in its wake and several Blood Tastes (including a few black ones), an Epiolnis, and four Funny Faces assaulted people, buildings, power lines, garbage bins—even _rats_. All of that was in easy viewing range of the building. Another Destroyer floated by the building's main doors as it chased a stray dog, but the building defenses activated and the machine gun turrets attacked it. Several Evil Eyes and a couple Evilgoyles flew by his rising, glass-covered viewing pad.

The city was being assaulted by monsters and there were a huge number of people fighting them (on the Plate, he could see SOLDIERs, at least one Turk, Infantry, criminals, stray Academy students, and even some civilians)—and making very little headway. Of all things, _Blood Tastes shouldn't_ have been so strong.

When he reached his destination, the office was empty and there were holes in the floors and ceilings, so he headed for the command center. As he turned the corner on the hall, he almost ran into Reno, who said, "Tseng headed for the President's office, yo. Try callin' him for orders." The red haired Turk then passed him, heading for the elevator himself. "Oh, an' if you're in need o' somethin' else ta do after whatever Tseng starts ya off with, call in to Lazard, yo!" Reno called back as he went.

Pulling out his PHS, Vant dialed Tseng's number—only for it to ring for over a minute with no answer. With a frown, he pocketed his phone, then went back to the elevator, that time to head for floor sixty-nine, the highest floor the elevator could reach. He had to wait for it to get back, but the trip was smooth and quick from there.

Only for the doors to open on a scene he never expected to see. In the middle of the lobby, Heidegger lay dead on his back, and several feet further away, Sora and Tseng were kneeling on the floor facing one another with the back of the woman's uniform singed around a large, ragged hole. At least her skin looked largely unharmed, but both had their hands over their ears. Past the two of them, he could see the President crouched on the stairs with his arms over his head while there was a hole in the wall beside the man and some debris scattered around him. All three living humans looked at him, then rose.

"Heidegger tried to kill the President over the deal he made with Wutai," Tseng told him. It went without saying that Heidegger was also the reason for Sora's wound, too.

"...I see," Vant replied, thankful the bastard had given them a legitimate excuse to openly and blatantly kill him. "Now, since you didn't answer your PHS and we're in the middle of a crisis, what do you need me to do?"

"That's right, what in Shiva's name is going on here?" the President asked angrily. "First, Hojo runs cackling through my office and disappears onto the roof, then the building rocks, then Heidegger tries to kill me! What's next, a meteor falling on the city?"

Tseng, Vant, and Sora all stood there staring at him in shock—which quickly became dawning realization for Tseng and Vant. Tseng said, "Mr. President, there are abnormal monsters assaulting the city and building, and after hearing you mention the Professor's behavior, there's a good chance they're the results of his latest experiments. With your permission, I'll send Vant to check on Hojo, then retreat to your personal defense while the Commander and I check on the other executives present right now."

"Since there are no monsters up here, feel free to do as you wish," the President replied, then turned and headed back up the stairs. He called back on his way, "Oh, and do something about the body's mess soon, too!"

Tseng sighed tiredly as Vant moved to go after the President, wondering why they had to get rid of any mess when it would likely dissolve into pyreflies by the time the monster attack was over. Tseng called softly after the older Turk, "Vant, try to find out what he did to the monsters to make them so bloody hard to kill, then find an opportune moment to eliminate him. We _can't_ afford to have something like this happen to Midgar _again_."

To show he'd heard and would do as asked, he met the Wutain's gaze with a single nod before focusing forward again, all without having stopped walking. _It's finally time,_ was his grim thought as he ascended the stairs. As he reached the top of them, he received a text message, so checked it—to find he also had the state of independent action on his side. He glanced over at the President on his way to the balcony door and noted how the older man was already back at his paperwork, causing him to mentally sneer at the sheer lack of care for others President Shinra had.

 **Notes:**

(1) Bear with me with this—I know Heidegger's reactions are extreme here, even for him, and there IS a reason for this. They just won't be able to find out why he 'went insane' until they have a chance to search his residence and office after this mess is resolved, so everyone will have to wait on that. After all, they have to save the city, first.

(2) Of course, if this had been the original timeline, that question would have been prophetic rather than mere irritation. :P :D


	25. 23-MiM: Weakness

Monsters in Midgar: Weakness

Outside on the balcony, Vant turned to look up at the roof above Shinra's office. He could hear Hojo cackling and calling out, "Yes, my beautiful experiments, show them your power! Strike fear into their hearts!"

When he went back to cackling, Vant sighed and wondered how the man had ever been classed as sane—or, at least, sane enough to give dangerous toys to. Another look and a walk around the side of the building revealed a stair leading to the rooftop, so he walked up it, peering around for Hojo. The rooftop, like the balcony, was large enough for a helicopter to land there, but there was no official mark for it and there wasn't one sitting there right then. Other than where the stairs were, the whole rooftop was surrounded by a two-foot-high wall which was about a foot and a half wide, and there was a vent pipe in one corner, pointing away from the stairs.

And on the two-foot tall wall directly across from the stairs, Hojo stood facing out over the city with his arms spread and his feet parted to brace him against the wind blowing into both their faces. With his hair and lab coat streaming behind him, the man looked positively demonic.

It would be so easy to just give him a little push—but then they'd never get the answers they needed.

As such, Vant moved over to sit on the two-foot wall running perpendicular to the one Hojo was on, placing himself about seven feet away and silently drawing his PHS so he could begin a text message to Tseng—one he'd only send when he had his answer. He then placed it on the wall beside him, out of Hojo's view if the man happened to turn around, as it would be hidden by his thigh.

"So, I'm guessing those monsters out there are indeed your creations, Professor?" he asked in a neutral tone.

The mad cackling stopped as Hojo snorted, "So the Turk finally speaks!" He then went on in a rather loving (for him, anyway) tone, "Of course they are! I'm so sure I've found the way to continue the SOLDIER program, even without Jenova or Sephiroth directly, which is entirely worthy of celebrating, don't you think?" It didn't escape Vant's attention that Hojo had apparently known someone was there without facing them, and not just 'someone', but a _Turk_. Was it normal for scientists to be as aware of their surroundings as combat personnel, without even looking to see 'who' it was?

"And how did they get out into the city, Professor?"

"Oh, that was because I let them out to stretch their legs and spread their wings, like any good pet owner would do."

The description of the experiments being 'pets' turned his stomach, but he tossed those feelings aside for the moment to ask, "What made you think releasing deadly monsters on civilian streets was a good idea?"

"Two reasons, Turk. One is to see their actual natural behaviors and abilities, and the other...Well, they sure make a good distraction, don't they?" There was a clear smirk in Hojo's voice.

"A...distraction?"

"Of course."

The creepy chuckling was back, and Vant had more immediate need to find out their weakness than what they were a distraction _for_ , so he commented, "They sure do take _a lot_ of work to take out. I can't help but wonder where they get their strength from." He silently picked up his PHS and got ready to start typing, hoping he'd get an answer.

At his comment, Hojo's chuckle turned into a laugh, then silenced for a moment before he smirked and said, "Mako energy is a wondrous thing! It's everywhere, all around us, especially here in Midgar. The smog is annoying, though."

Vant blinked, then blinked again as he remembered how Hojo loved to boast and didn't normally say actual random things when asked a question—even when it sounded random. As such, he began typing the message to Tseng: _Shut down the Reactors. That's where they're getting their strength from._

In the meantime, he had to distract Hojo from what he was doing just long enough to fully type the message and send it, so asked in a falsely irritable tone, "What does _that_ have to with anything?" He hoped Hojo would decide to boast like usual, to show his mental superiority. The longer Hojo talked, the longer he'd have to type and send.

Hojo laughed sharply again, then said, "Mako is a source of infinite power, Turk. Oh, I still needed small samples of one of my former subject's genes, but with cloning, that isn't as much of a hardship as I'd thought. No, it's singularly more troublesome that those two hack doctors from Deepground have been given charge of _my_ SOLDIER infusions and will only give me as much as I need for the known SOLDIERs scheduled for injections. Well, regardless, true genius can find a way around any situation, and I had other useful samples at hand.

"All it took was to give the monsters Mako injections and tweak their genes to absorb their necessary energy from sources of Mako energy—those Slum drugs, power lines, the smog, batteries, waste products. The result..." Hojo paused to give a content sigh, which was somehow more creepy than his chuckle, then finished, "And the final result was a subject showing enhanced regenerative abilities, fatal damage reversal, a recovery shield, and easily twice the strength, reflexes, and senses of a normal Mako enhancement. Truly a masterpiece of scientific innovation!"

Since Vant had just sent the message and the full scope of what Hojo had just said was actually horrifying (how was _any_ of that 'innovation'?), he reacted as expected and gasped in shock. What he didn't expect was that, a moment after he gasped, a _tentacle_ wrapped around his PHS and crushed it with ease, leaving him to stare at his now-empty hands, his broken PHS on the ground at his feet...And at the writhing, pastel purple and blood red mottled tentacle which had destroyed the device.

As the appendage withdrew, his eyes followed it—to Hojo as the man ' _tsk_ ed' and said, "Now, no spoiling the fun, Turk." The tentacle retreated beneath the man's lab coat.

For a long moment, Vant stared at the man, trying to assess what him sprouting a _tentacle_ meant, then dropped his hands onto the wall beside him and asked warily, "Professor, since I assume you're aware of your extra appendage, where did you get it _from_?"

"Why, from Jenova, of course," Hojo replied with his trademark creepy chuckle, causing Vant to shiver. That answered _a lot_ of questions he'd had about the man, how he could do the things he did to other living beings. If he was his own experimental subject, his mindset and sanity (or lack thereof) were self-explanatory.

"...So you used yourself."

"Of course I did, you foolish whelp! How could I possibly know what uses, strengths, and weaknesses something had without first subjecting myself to it? Of course, there are times where that doesn't quite work or there are viable ways to study the effects without applying the product personally, but Jenova wasn't one of them. I'm so disappointed in Sephiroth, though. He had progressed so far, only to throw it all away before he could reach his full potential. That showed me a vital flaw in my experiments. There's no accounting for sentience, after all. Pity."

"Of course, that means you'd never have full control over _any_ living thing, Professor," Vant had to reply evenly, though internally, he felt quite rebellious. "No matter how hard you try. Not even your 'pets'."

The man went completely still, then spun and hopped down from the wall, only to storm across the rooftop, down the stairs, and back down to the President's office, saying as he went, "We'll just see about that, Turk!" Vant followed him quickly, internally snickering over how he'd hit one of Hojo's soft spots.

As Hojo made to leave the office, Vant got in his way and said, "With the rampaging monsters, I can't let you leave until someone else is here to stay with the President or go with you." No, they _didn't_ want Hojo to go 'help' his creations wreck even more havoc, so he wasn't going to let him leave.

With a glare, the mad scientist began, "But they—"

"Sit down and shut up so Vant can do his job and I can do mine!" the President barked irritably from his desk.

"And what 'job' would that be?" the scientist asked with a sneer. "Signing off on yet _another_ resort when you just got one?"

The President looked up at Hojo with a glare which made both men think of the phrase 'if looks could kill.' "Thanks to _someone_ letting _your_ experiments out into the building and city, _I_ have to sign off on funds to clean up the mess, both now and after they've been dealt with. You're easily costing me ten billion gil in just dealing with the monsters right at this moment, so don't try my patience, because you're already treading on very thin ice, Hojo."

Sufficiently cowed by the words, Hojo hunched his shoulders and moved over to the seating area at the back of the President's Office, though his mind was clearly—elsewhere—by his absent expression as he sat. It wasn't yet an 'opportune time' to kill Hojo (would it even be possible to do so without resorting to Chaos?), so Vant took up a guard position near the door and where he could see both men. The President had gone back to his paperwork by then, so wasn't paying any attention to the other two men in the room.

And why did it feel like there was a fourth presence in the room, one besides the President, Hojo, and himself? There were no visual cues indicating someone, but as a Turk, he knew there were blind spots in the room, and he couldn't move from his position without making them suspicious.

The thought crossed his mind as he settled in to wait that it was likely nearly everyone he knew was involved in this mess. He hoped Lunaria, Sephiroth, and Anthony—and all his other friends—were okay while he was safe in President Shinra's office...

FoW

Tseng and Sora had needed a couple minutes upon entering floor sixty-eight to adapt to what they were seeing without losing their stomach contents.

Blood, gore, bits of skin, bone, innards, and cloth scraps.

It was scattered around a silent sixty-eighth floor which should have been active and energetic. There were splatters stuck to walls, doors, containers, paperwork, desks, the floor—even the ceiling. Normally, a dead body would decompose into pyreflies, but with the bodies clearly torn apart, it looked like clean-up crews would have to handle _this_ with soap and water. Of course, with it being akin to a scene from a nightmare, Tseng had to wonder if _any_ of the department's doctors were still alive.

"What do we do now?" Sora asked him, expression drawn. That told him a great deal about how bad this actually was, as in her time with Deepground, she had been exposed to more horrible things than he ever had.

Drawing in a deep breath, he steadied himself and said grimly, "We search the floor for signs of life, making our way towards the internal elevator between floors sixty-seven and sixty-eight."

It wasn't a very extensive search, but they were sure there weren't any living beings, human, monster, or animal, by the time they got to the elevator. In amongst the gore, they had seen several holes, and there had even been some bits which had looked pastel purple-ish or silvery white. What had produced _those_? Either way, it was dead and dismantled, whatever 'it' had once been, so they had simply kept going, approaching the blocked elevator with some care. It was open, but a large, cage-like shipping container had fallen over the door and one of the overhead lighting support beams had come down partway over the container, pinning it in place.

As they neared it, however, a familiar voice called from inside, "Tseng, thank Bahamut! I can't get out of here, and the others are trapped in their research offices below!"

The Wutain man paused for a moment as his PHS alerted him to an incoming text message, then called back to her, "Are you injured, Doctor Valentine?"

"No. I was just very lucky things fell in the way of the door to keep the monsters from bothering with me. The lift itself isn't damaged, but with the door stuck open by the shipping crate, it won't descend, and the maintenance hatch only leads into two feet of closed-in space with no exits," Lunaria Valentine replied, sounding both highly amused and equally as strained.

"Sora, do you think we can move the beam and shipping crate?" Tseng asked.

For a moment, the woman examined the obstacles, then said, "We'd need to melt the top of the beam still attached to the ceiling, then use Ice or Quake on the wall near there to shove it outward. From there, if it doesn't fall on its own, I should be able to move it. We'll be able to push the crate once the beam has been moved."

"Do you have Fire on you?" the Turk asked.

"I do," the SOLDIER agreed.

"Would you recommend Ice or Quake? I have both."

"Ice will do the least lasting damage."

"Fair enough. Doctor Valentine, back away from the door."

"Already done," the woman replied from inside the elevator.

It was the work of a couple minutes for Tseng and Sora to move the beam as they'd said—Ice 3 shoved it right off the crate—then shove the metal crate out of the elevator doorway, freeing Lunaria. Rather than step off it, she motioned the other two onto it with her, so once they'd stepped in, she sent it down to floor sixty-seven.

When the doors opened—it looked largely like the floor above, only with many more holes in the floor.

"Looks like someone's rendition of Nibel cheese (1)," Lunaria commented with a sigh. "It explains how everything got so quiet once the monsters ran out of easy things to kill up there, though."

"Do you know what happened?" Tseng asked as he checked the message he'd ignored earlier. It was from Vant, saying: _Shut down the Reactors. That's where they're getting their strength from._

"Hojo released the monsters from their cages on purpose to kill everyone—even Doctor Hollander is dead, along with all his assistants who knew the process he used on the monsters. I think he was hoping they would kill Doctors Blythe and Kedran, too, but he underestimated their paranoia. The section of the department we work in is—let's just say, even if they _could_ have gotten in, it would have been a lot easier for them to go elsewhere, because the floor of the main department is less sturdy than our walls and doors," the woman explained as she led them to a sealed door with another beam in front of it, the metal having twisted into an odd shape and partially melted to the door.

What had done _that_?

"Well, that sure puts a spin on things, and I wasn't imagining Hojo's deliberate involvement," Tseng sighed, finding Reeve's PHS number and dialing it.

A few rings later, the man asked in confusion, "Is something wrong, Tseng?"

"We have a situation out here, and it looks like we need you to authorize a complete Reactor shut-down for us," Tseng informed him simply. Lunaria and Sora both turned to stare at him with wide eyes.

"But why? Wait, does this have something to do with the monsters Jessie called me about?" the man questioned with sudden realization in his voice.

"Yes, it does. How are the others in Urban Development, by the way?"

"I sent Biggs back to them with some of Weapons' robo-soldiers, but I know only about two thirds of them are still alive, and only because they had Jessie there and she was willing to lead them to fight back. As for shutting down the Reactors, I'm going to have to call the foreman at every one of them to give them my current Master Code, but Reactor Zero has to be manually shut down. Your best bet for that is Jessie, and—maybe Sora to show her the way? Will that work for you?"

"It's a fantastic start. When the monsters are defeated, I'll call you so you can start up the Reactors again."

"That's fine. Don't take too long to get to Reactor Zero, though, or Shinra Headquarters will be mobbed if it's the last Reactor running," Reeve replied, then hung up.

Tseng looked at Sora to say, "Once we get the door open here, you need to escort Jessie to Reactor Zero."

"Tseng, no offense, but I think the Reactor is the more important thing right now," Lunaria commented in a dry tone, and Sora nodded her agreement. As Tseng opened his mouth to protest, she added, "They have everything they need for a few _days_ , even food. The door isn't in urgent need of being opened, but if what you said is true, the city _is_ in urgent need of a power outage so the monsters can be killed."

With a small sigh, the Wutain man relented with a nod. "Fine, then head out, Sora. The two of you will be stuck down there until we can turn the Reactor back on, since it powers this whole building, including the lift. You may want to take breathing masks with you, since we have no idea of the state of the toxins down there."

"Reeve was fine when he upgraded the Reactor, but he only went down there for short times over many days," Sora said. "A longer stay...I'll take some masks, then." She left the two there to go find the masks, then head for Urban Development.

"I have to keep on my rounds to check on the executives," Tseng told the woman with him.

"I'll go with you for now," Lunaria agreed, pulling out her PHS to let the other doctors know what was going on.

The pair then headed away from the gore on the Science Department floors.

FoW

Shalua was in one of her academic medical classes when the building suddenly rocked, producing startled yelps and screams from her classmates and other nearby rooms. She sat up straight, knowing something was very wrong, her hand moving in the direction of the gun she was allowed to have on her due to having her ranged weapons class later that day. The class came to a stand-still as the other students began muttering to one another worriedly, and their behavior irritated her as she kept gazing around, trying to find out where the rocking had come from.

Suddenly, a section of the ceiling near the front of the room fell to the floor with a monster like a distorted, scaled human on top of it, its top half a mangled, blueish color and the bottom half of its body more of a sickly, fleshy-reddish color. She drew in a sharp breath as she recognized it as a Makonoid, rising and drawing her gun from its holster to shoot the monster in the head. The force of the shot made it arch backwards, but then it straightened again and everyone watched the wound heal in something like horror. That was when the screaming, chaotic, running-around-like-a-chicken-with-its-head-cut-off behavior began.

Before they had a chance to leave the room, two more holes several feet from the first appeared, dropping two more monsters into the room, those ones Sahagins. The Makonoid was standing still for some reason, but from the holes it and the Sahagins had left, a pair of black Blood Tastes like Dark Nation appeared. Of everyone in her class, Shalua was the only one bothering to fight back, even though she knew others were also in at least one of the combat classes. Granted, a few of them may not have had their weapons on them, but at least three of them should have had their guns.

Unfortunately, her attacking them caused them to target her.

She heard the door being thrown open as one of the Sahagins dove at her with its spear—and pain exploded in her left arm, making her look to her side...where she saw the Makonoid...holding her arm in one hand.

She didn't even feel the Sahagin's spear hit her or hear someone shout her name, just too stunned to do any more than look down at the stump of her left arm to verify that yes, the Makonoid really was holding her arm in one hand. Then everything went dark.

White laced with green surged through her senses and she found herself being held up by someone. Opening her eyes, she blinked a few times at Elena as she whispered, "What are you doing here?"

"I was heading this way after realizing my class was actually going to fight," Elena said quietly, her tone subdued and her eyes pained. "Don't move too much—Revive can't return missing limbs to you, only keep you from bleeding out."

"Missing—?" Shalua began, then remembered seeing the Makonoid with her—arm in its hand. "My arm!" she suddenly gasped, trying to sit.

Elena held her down and said, "Stay still, you idiot!"

"Shalua!" Anthony's voice came from nearby, just past Elena. "Take it easy before you open the wound again," he added, making Shalua still and slowly look up at him. He was panting, and it was obvious he'd been fighting, his uniform the pale blue of the SOLDIER Thirds rather than the dark red of the Cadets and his eyes glowing, Mako-blue. That's right, they had been promoted a few days ago. (2)

"She's awake?" another familiar voice asked, and she turned her head to see Cloud and Tifa beside Anthony.

"Looks like it," Anthony agreed. "Could you go check on Karen (3), Shelke, Yufi, and Evan? It looks like most of the monsters are in this area, so I'll start working from this side."

"Yeah, I'll do that," Cloud agreed, heading away.

"I'm going with you!" Tifa immediately added, following him.

After a moment of silence, Anthony said, "I can't just stay here, but you don't have orders from the Turks yet, so I'll leave Shalua to you, Elena."

"Fine. Don't go dying on me, either, Anthony," Elena replied to him with a glare.

"I don't plan on it," he answered in faint amusement, then met Shalua's gaze. "And you had better recover, too. You know better than anyone how many options you have to deal with that." He gave a nod at the stump of her left arm, causing her to look down at it—and to see the holes and blood left over from the Sahagin's spear attack on her chest in the process. She made a face, causing him to sigh, then turn and leave.

"He's right. Don't be a hypocrite and give up just because you now need one of those—auto-mail limbs Reeve's been working on," Elena told the red haired teen she held.

Shalua looked up at her slowly and gave her head a small shake. "I'm not going to do that, anyway. But—it's really—disorienting. This—is a mess. What do I do now?"

"You don't. That's for _us_ to do. Just rest," Elena answered. She helped Shalua sit up, then drew her gun and took up a guard position so she could send the monsters in the room back into recovery as they woke.

 **Notes:**

(1) This would be Swiss cheese in our world. :P

(2) Based on my timeline, February 10th would have made it exactly 3 months to the day from when they began their SOLDIER Cadet training. They got their notice of successful completion then, and were assigned a time to get their first infusions on the following day, the 11th. Today is the 16th. If there had been more Cadets, there would have been more than one day allocated for the first infusion, and in my story, Mako poisoning recovery from SOLDIER infusions generally takes 3 days to become functional again (not necessarily fully recovered, just able to do things, a bit like working with a headache or minor cold). These are Cadets getting their first infusion, however, so they're given 4 days to recover, and longer if needed, up to a week.

(3) This is just a random name I assigned to 'the thirteen-year-old experiment' so they had an actual name to call her by, like they should. It's not important and you don't have to remember it. I just figured if she was hanging around with Elena, Anthony, Shalua, and the others, they'd know and use her name—it's one thing for Ed to not know, but it'd just be strange if these kids, her 'friends', didn't.


	26. 24-MiM: Death

Monsters in Midgar: Death

He wasn't tired. Zack was confused, given how he'd been in steady battle with all manner of monsters alongside the Behemoth since they'd all woken. He was glad he was a First, though, because the top-end strength and reflex boosts it gave were what was keeping him alive as monsters attacked. The Funny Faces were the worst. He'd noticed bigger monsters had to be killed more times than smaller ones, and that the break between battle rounds got longer the more times they were killed, but that was moot when there were plenty of opponents attacking at once.

Where _was_ he getting his unending supply of energy from?

Zack sighed as the Behemoth got up _again_. He'd already 'killed' it about twenty times and it _still_ wasn't dead. The two Blood Tastes he'd started with had been dead for awhile, along with two Epiolnises and an Evil Eye which had joined the fight soon after. One Destroyer had died before he'd sent the Behemoth into recovery the most recent time, which left him three Funny Faces which were new additions and two more Destroyers which had joined several rounds after the first, now dead one. There was no shortage of enemies.

Only just now, he had a Funny Face, both Destroyers, _and_ the Behemoth attacking all at once.

Until one Destroyer and the Funny Face fell to the ground as he dodged the Behemoth—which rammed into the other Destroyer, taking it out of commission for recovery, too. It only took a moment to come down on the back of the Behemoth's neck, sending it back into recovery as well.

Looking up and around, he saw Emma of the Turks crouched on a nearby rooftop, hand raised in greeting. He returned the wave with a grin. As the Funny Faces which had been in recovery rose to face him, he attacked them harshly to send them right back into recovery—and looked up in time to see Emma shoot down two new additions in the form of two more Evil Eyes.

Then the power went out—and the Behemoth, newly recovered, went into a panic frenzy that knocked him back, as did nearly every other monster in the area which wasn't in recovery. Emma shot out the Behemoth's eyes—and it didn't recover for a change as it was forced to stop, so he grinned and charged at it, jumping to crush its skull. Sure enough, it fell—and didn't get back up or go into recovery, it just died. So did almost every other monster he and Emma took out once the power went out.

Once they were done fighting, Emma landed beside him, her PHS open as she said, "We have to get back to the Shinra building. All the monsters are heading there."

"Got it," Zack agreed as she put her PHS away.

The pair turned to the still-brightly-lit Shinra building and made their way back to it, killing the monsters they found heading that way as they went.

FoW

Kariya was tired and had retreated to a window ledge just outside the monsters' reach to rest, one hand to his still-tender side after the Behemoth had gotten in a lucky strike—thankfully, even though his shirt and jacket were torn, he'd been able to heal the injury with his Restore Materia. He knew he was in trouble because he only had a few bombs and fewer bullets left, not counting the off-limits bomb. The Behemoth was recovering noticeably slower, but because he needed the bombs for the Behemoth and had only a finite number, he'd had to use nearly all his gun ammo just to finally kill the Destroyers. Would the three bombs he had left be enough to finally kill the Behemoth?

Suddenly, there was a shriek above him, and he looked up to see three Evilgoyles diving at him from above. "Fucking Hellfire..." he sighed, too tired to move right then.

Before they struck him, something landed on the one closest to him and lashed out at the other two, all three blows enough to send them to the ground and into recovery. Kariya had seen a flash of black, so he was pretty sure it was a Turk, and sure enough, Maur climbed up beside him a few moments later.

"Doing all right, Kariya?" the larger Turk asked.

With a snort, the orange haired Turk replied, "I'm damned tired, but otherwise fine. I have three bombs left, less ammo for my gun, and no way to know when that thing will finally die."

Both stared down at the slowly rousing Behemoth for a moment before Maur pulled a paper bag from inside his suit jacket. "I figured you'd be quick to get low, so I risked getting here a bit later in favor of making sure you were resupplied," Maur said as he offered the bag to Kariya.

The bomb specialist took the bag, opened it, and gave an impressed whistle. "That was probably the best available option. Thanks. There's Materia in here?" Even as he asked that, he began allocating the assortment of bombs to various places on his person.

At that moment, the Evilgoyles sprang up to attack again, so Maur shoved them harshly back to the ground—and even gave the Behemoth a 'killing' head blow. He then returned to Kariya's side to wait for the monsters to recover, which the Evilgoyles were obviously doing much faster than the Behemoth.

"If you're out of bullets, too, those bombs won't last long. The Materia are Contain and Ifrit, the two you had First Fair Master for you. Figured they'd come in handy today. You should have had them on you to start with," the other man finally replied to the question, sounding like he was scolding the older man.

Kariya chuckled and slotted the Materia in his bracer as well. "Didn't think I'd need them for my watch. As it happens, I _didn't_ need them for that."

Maur gave him an amused grin, then turned his gaze to the Evilgoyles as they sprang back into the air. Once more, he hit the Evilgoyles, taking them down and sending them back into recovery. "How soon do you think you'll be ready to take on this big nasty again?" Maur asked of the orange haired man as he rejoined him on the ledge.

"Oh, you'll probably have at least one more round of killing it for me before I'll be fit to move again," Kariya replied. "Just don't attack it the same way twice in a row or you'll get mauled."

"It can predict a repeat of the previous attack?" the brown haired man asked in surprise.

"Apparently. And I'm not sure this one is quite a normal Behemoth, either, even by the standards of the 'monsters which won't die', I just can't put my finger on what it is."

"...I'll go with your instincts after your years on a battlefield. If something's wrong here, we're going to have to be ready for it."

The advice about changing the exact method of attack worked, and Maur ended up downing the Behemoth twice more and the Evilgoyles twice that many before Kariya had recovered. They also now had a new arrival in the form of an Epiolnis, so Maur had taken care of it as well. On the next attack on the Behemoth, Kariya used a bomb on it as he had been doing until Maur got there, sending it back into recovery once more.

As the Behemoth got up again and the Turks were preparing to attack it, the Sector 1 Reactor suddenly shut down and all the power went out. All the nearby monsters shrieked in alarm and went into a panic frenzy, even the Behemoth—and they all lashed out with an insane attack force. Maur jumped at the Behemoth as Kariya threw some magic at the assortment of Destroyers, Evil Eyes, and the Epiolnis which had focused their attacks on the two Turks.

Right away, Kariya noticed a difference—they went down and stayed down, still and unmoving! With a feeling of elation, he turned to look for Maur—

To see the man pinned under one of the Behemoth's clawed paws—as the Behemoth changed colors from dark purple to—yellow!

It was becoming a King Behemoth in the middle of the battle!

"No!" he yelled as Maur punched the Behemoth's ankle with a Quake Fist with enough force to break it.

King Behemoths were far more sensitive to magical attacks than Behemoths and were guaranteed to counter them with Flare, and the earth elemental blow activated that counter at point-blank range.

As the explosion of heat and light faded, Kariya felt himself grow cold. There was nothing but ash left of Maur's body. (1)

Then, the cold turned to raging hot fury as he snarled, "You son of a bitch!"

There was no thought as he jumped forward and shoved a bomb into the first 'soft' spot he came to as it turned to face him, catching one of its horns so he could reach those few 'soft' spots. The first one turned out to be its eye—which left his hand a slimy mess, but he didn't particularly care right then. All he could focus on was killing the much stronger and harder-to-kill King Behemoth, with only the knowledge that at least it _would_ be able to die now.

At the pain of having the bomb shoved into its eye, the King Behemoth—now fully changed to yellow with a dark blue mane, blue eyes, and white horns, claws, and fangs—threw its head back, and because Kariya was holding onto one of its horns, he was tossed high into the air with the motion. From his new vantage point above it, he twisted in mid-air to face the ground, drew his gun, and shot his last bullet into the eye with the bomb. The resulting explosion broke his fall as it tore apart and incinerated most of the King Behemoth's head and neck.

It collapsed in what felt like slow motion as he came down on its back, but it quickly went completely still as he stood straight and—stared off into space, silent tears running down his cheeks.

He hadn't been close to many of the Turks until recently, but Maur had been one of the few who hadn't cared about his past from the start. It _hurt_ to lose one of his few true, old friends in the Turks, leaving him nearly in a state of shock as he tried to adapt to Maur's death.

Suddenly, someone broke into his thoughts with a timid, "Sir, the monsters are moving in the direction of Shinra Headquarters, but—I'm all that's left of my squad. Could I head there with you?"

Shinra Headquarters. Where his daughters were.

Turning his head to look in that direction, he realized it still had power. He then looked down at the Infantryman for a moment before wiping his face and saying, "Yeah, let's get over there." He jumped down from the Behemoth's back and led the way in that direction as the two took out monsters on the way.

There would be time to mourn later. Right now, he _had_ to protect the living, even if that meant stuffing his current pain in a figurative box to set aside until later.

FoW

When he'd first fought the lone Funny Face which just wouldn't die, Reno had been annoyed—and scared, though he'd never admit that to anyone else. He'd even been in the Sector 8 Slums back then, too, and there had been nothing else in the immediate area to worry about. Even though he'd known that single monster wouldn't be a one-off and he'd have to fight monsters like those again, he'd been hoping that wouldn't be the case.

Until Tseng had called him to his office to give him a pair of green illusion stones, which apparently manipulated plants—and poison pollens. Right away, he'd had the guys in Weapons fit them to his EMR and had begun experimenting with them. The results had shown him just how useful, but also how dangerous to his allies, they could be. He could do a lot of things with plants, assuming there was soil for them to 'root' in, because most of them were triggering sudden growth of dormant seeds nearby. The poison pollens, and other similar things (there was a healing nectar, too, for example), were produced from the stones directly unless there were already-grown plants nearby.

Unfortunately, 'objects' produced by the stone, like the poison pollen, affected a designated area or a set area around him, not a specific target, so it would poison any of his allies in the area as well as the enemies. To mitigate that without needing a bunch of Antidotes on hand, he'd gotten Zack to give him a Unicorn Summon—and sure enough, he could use the pollen, call the Summon, and keep any of his allies from being poisoned in the process. Well, it wasn't that they 'weren't being poisoned', it was that Unicorn was immediately negating their poison status, and as long as he was keeping the pollen active, Unicorn would stay around to keep recovering his allies.

Now, as he wandered through the Sector 8 Slums, he was deliberately making a target of himself because he had the best end of the deal he could get, and it was kinda fun to watch the monsters falling like flies around him. There was one fatal flaw in the monsters' make-up, but only someone with the use of a permanent effect magic or item could exploit it. Even when the monsters went into recovery, they only recovered physical damage, but any status effects which were permanent, like poisons or curses, would stay active on them and they would still be poisoned or cursed when they got back up again. The poison would keep eating away at their health, too, even when they were in recovery mode, so they went down faster after leaving it.

He was alone at the moment, so didn't need Unicorn, though he'd encountered a few Gaia's Refuge guys on the way and warned them to get civilians out of his path as he headed for the power transmission stations.

Oddly enough, not long after he got to the Slums, all the power went out, so he was actually being mobbed by monsters and it was only the poison saving him. Of course, after the power went out, it also seemed like they only needed to 'die' once or twice to stay dead, and the air was becoming oddly clean. So was the ground, for that matter. He'd noticed a trend for the monsters to head in one particular direction, though, and began following the direction they were heading in. It was leading him towards the Sector 1 Slums, and towards one of the older power transmission stations on the outskirts of no-man's-land between 8 and 1, near the core support pillar of Midgar.

As he approached the area, he could hear a battle happening up ahead, so he picked up his pace, climbing right over a pile of rubble that was in his way—and from the top of it, he could see the transmission station. It looked like the station facility was sending out sparks and smoke in several places, like it had blown out. Alvis and several of Gaia's Refuge's guys were fighting a host of monsters all trying to reach the power transmission station, leaving him puzzled by why they were mobbing it. Another look at the battle zone showed the monsters nearest the station in their normal recovery state while the ones further away were staying dead after one or two blows.

So far, all the monsters were Sahagins, Blood Tastes, Funny Faces, and Evil Eyes, but Alvis had put one Abyss Worm in a Pyramid. While the group was doing reasonably well against the mob, the sheer numbers of monsters kept growing, and there was actually a strange absence of Abyss Worms and Death Claws around the station. Reno suddenly had a bad feeling and scrambled down the junk heap—one of the last ones remaining in the area, only because the 'garbage disposal company' kept tossing their garbage in that spot—to march right into the mess with his poison pollen active. As he was entering the outskirts of the battle zone, there were none of his allies in range just yet, so he didn't need Unicorn.

Regardless, his presence there took some of the pressure off the others and gave them a chance to let a few of theirs sit out to recover. In the first round of 'resters', there were three members of Gaia's Refuge, and eight were still fighting alongside Alvis.

Reno still felt like something was wrong—and he was proven right as the ground surged beneath Alvis and the Gaia's Refuge active fighters. The red haired eighteen-year-old's mouth fell open in shock as he saw three Death Claws and three more Abyss Worms surge out of the ground, one of the former and two of the latter swallowing people whole as they did (well, mostly whole, in the Death Claw's case). One Abyss Worm launched itself at the power station, freeing the Abyss Worm which had been held in Pyramid in the process, and ripping a hole in the side of the station which sent a massive shower of sparks scattering over the area. The other two Death Claws—attacked the people they had just come up under, fast and hard.

It took only moments for Alvis and three of the Gaia's Refuge agents to be sliced to ribbons, bodies dismantled into no less than six pieces each. (2)

"Holy Alexander..." Reno muttered as the head of one of Gaia's Refuge's people landed at his feet, followed by Alvis' arm and EMR. His stomach rebelled, but he held it back by an act of will—and by forcing it all into something Tseng liked to call 'his own brand of primal fury', a Limit Break which varied in effect every single time he used it.

Right then, the effect was singularly unique and impressive, as it expanded the range of his poison pollen significantly, turned it nearly instantly deadly, and called Unicorn out just in time to keep the remaining five of Gaia's Refuge's members alive. Pretty much every single monster died as the poison pollen visibly ate them from the inside out, like a high dose of extremely volatile acid. Some near the power station tried to go into recovery, but they were being eaten so fast by the poison that they couldn't recover fast enough and never came out of recovery—not because they 'hadn't recovered', but because there was next to nothing left of their bodies.

"Turk!" one of the men from Gaia's Refuge called. When Reno's gaze moved to him, the man said, "Felicia's asking for us to move to Sector Six, Wall Market, where the majority of the monsters seem to be. Are you...I mean, do you want us to go ahead?"

Feeling something brush his face, Reno reached up to brush it away—only to realize it was a tear. Had he realized he was so close to the other Turks? It would probably be a long time before he could close his eyes and not see a repeat of that scene, he realized tiredly, his mind and body feeling numb.

But, they still had work to do, and Wall Market was the most populated Sector in the Slums. "I'm goin' with you, yo," he replied, rubbing his face and forcing the tears away as he deactivated the poison pollen and Unicorn released on its own once the last of the pollen settled. "Lead the way," he added as he snatched Alvis' EMR.

The six set out for Wall Market.

FoW

Standing guard in the President's Office was a rather boring task. The only changes in President Shinra and Hojo had been the President sitting back from his paperwork while pinching the bridge of his nose and Hojo getting up to stand at the window. It was easy to see the mad scientist's smirk in the reflection in the glass, but either way, as long as they were stuck there, no opportunity to eliminate Hojo would present itself anytime soon.

At least, that was what Vant thought.

Until he saw Hojo stiffen and his expression become a glare. After a few more moments, the man put his hand on the window, his gaze full of rage. After a few moments more, Vant saw the lights coming from the city below dim significantly as Hojo released a snarl, causing President Shinra to look up at him warily. As the entire city darkened, causing the whole area to fall into a near-twilight state of lighting (why _was_ it so dark in Midgar in the middle of the day on the _Upper_ Plate?), Vant smiled and Hojo spun to face him.

"How? How did you inform them when I destroyed your PHS?" the scientist howled, almost spitting in his rage, taking several jerky steps in Vant's direction.

"Inform who of what?" President Shinra ventured, frowning. "And what does _that_ have to do with an unscheduled power outage?"

The Turk had to commend Shinra's observation skills, even as he met Hojo's gaze and said, "I'd had my PHS out since I sat down up there, and as soon as you went on your rant about Mako, I knew the Reactors were the key to defeating the monsters. It's nothing more complicated. On the other hand, your bragging gave me time to type out the message and send it, and you only destroyed my phone _after_ I'd hit the 'send' button."

For a long moment, Hojo was silent before asking in an icy tone, "And Reactor Zero?"

Vant raised a brow. "We know where it is and how to get to it. Did you think we'd be so remiss as to forget that one? We're _Turks_ , after all." He was sort of taunting Hojo with that, so he braced himself for a potential attack. But really, Hojo had to _ask that_?

Silence fell for three heartbeats before a surge of rage and tentacles exploded from Hojo's body as he howled, "You've ruined _everything_!"

President Shinra swore and scrambled back from his desk, hitting the wall of windows behind him, then inching along it towards the balcony door, very narrowly missing damage by the tentacles lashing out in his direction. Vant, as he dodged the tentacles targeting him, drew his gun and shot off the ones reaching for the President, causing another howl of rage from Hojo. Or Jenova? Or both, maybe?

Yes, he probably could have let Hojo kill the President, but there were two immediate problems they would cause which they couldn't afford to have at the moment. One of those was a need for an organizer to fix the mess in the city, and killing Shinra would have meant they'd have no one until Rufus could return from his trip—which would also defeat the purpose of said trip. The other was that protecting him was a means to earn his trust so he would hopefully at least give them hints to what he was up to, and they were all sure he was up to something they couldn't afford to not know. And so Shinra hopefully wouldn't go off the deep end with paranoia after both Heidegger and Hojo tried to kill him.

"What did I ruin, exactly?" Vant called when the howling stopped and the tentacles had returned to Hojo's sides to heal.

"My beautiful pets are going to be destroyed, I'll never get Sephiroth back under my control, and I'll never be able to get my hands on the subjects denied to me!" the scientist snarled.

"And that was justification for destroying the city?" the Turk asked with a frown, wondering how anyone so insane was able to make people think they were sane.

"Of course it was!" Hojo snarled again—and mutated into some sort of twisted hybrid thing with some sort of small protrusions on its back, two warped arms of different sizes, and an assortment of tentacles for legs. It still wore Hojo's lab coat, and it could still be called 'humanoid' in a very loose sense of the term, as it still had—mostly—Hojo's head and torso, an upright stance, and two arms, even without having only two legs. The mad scientist/Jenova then startled him by shouting, "Qliphoth, come help me kill this annoying Turk!"

...Who in Titan's name was Qliphoth?

Vant had his answer momentarily as a silver haired young man with cat-like green eyes stepped out from behind the pillar in the back of the room and approached the two calmly. He looked just like Sephiroth with only minor differences, all of them superficial—his bangs were parted in the middle, not to the right, his sword hilt was different from Sephiroth's, and there were minor differences in their clothing. The similarities were eerie, especially when he was the same age as Sephiroth and he definitely hadn't been born as Sephiroth's twin. About the only thing this answered was why Vant had felt a fourth presence in the office the whole time he'd been there.

"...That's not the General," the Turk commented warily.

Hojo howled with laughter which was a distorted cross between male and female before saying, "This is Qliphoth, or Subject Q, a clone of Sephiroth. At first, I had thought he was a failure, but with my modifications to him, he turned out to be quite a force to be reckoned with. And he's so much better behaved, too."

With a small sigh, Vant called, "You'd better go outside, Mr. President, otherwise you'll end up dead." The man, who had been hovering at the door to the balcony, moved to open it.

"Oh, yes, I'll deal with _you_ later, Shinra!" Hojo laughed. The blond man paled and bolted outside.

As soon as the door closed, both Hojo/Jenova and Qliphoth launched attacks at him, the former with his tentacles and the latter with an eight-foot katana. At the last possible moment, Vant dodged, using his metal arm to deflect Qliphoth's strike while Hojo's tentacles (and a clawed hand, he realized belatedly) embedded themselves in the wall where he had been. One thing was sure—this wouldn't be an easy battle. Dodging one of them was one thing, but two, one of those virtually unbeatable until the power went out?

With one last sigh, he braced himself for what was likely to be the hardest fight of his life, mind entering a zone of battle clarity while he began assessing his opponents for movement patterns and potential weaknesses.

 **Notes:**

(1) + (2) Both of these are deaths which could not have been avoided, even with Final Attack + Revive/Phoenix. Remember, the terms of revival they've been operating on are that there has to be enough of the body left for Revive/Phoenix to be able to revive it. Maur is ash, maybe with some bits of cooked meat, and Alvis is in no less than six pieces = Both deaths wouldn't have been changed by the combo.

Just so no one goes and tells me 'they'd have been fine if I'd given everyone Final Attack + Revive/Phoenix like Zack was Mastering them for.'


	27. 25-MiM: 0 (Zero)

Monsters in Midgar: 0 (Zero)

It was no exaggeration to say the monsters were difficult to defeat, Sephiroth found as he worked his way though the building, up from the Turks' offices after dropping Lazard off. There were holes all over the place on all floors he'd been on (at least it was easy enough for Sephiroth to bypass them), showing where monsters had gone to lower floors, but that didn't mean they'd cleared out of the upper floors, either.

He'd met two Makonoids, easily the strongest of the monsters he'd met to date, several Sahagins—which still always traveled in packs—five Blood Tastes, a few Destroyers, and a couple stray Epiolnises and Funny Faces, though by anything he'd heard from elsewhere in the building, those last two had been oddities. In total from floor fifty-six to floor sixty-six, he'd found twenty-one monsters, which was no small number for ten floors, three of which hadn't had any monsters on them. It said a great deal about the sheer number of them Hojo had created. His one advantage was truly in how fast he could kill them, and the additional damage he could do with a single blow meant they took fewer recoveries before dying.

He had parted company with Tseng outside Palmer's office on sixty-six, the floor he was currently on, after helping the Turk kill two Blood Tastes. Since he had only needed to kill them twice, he realized Tseng had nearly taken them out himself, without being able to speed up the process. They had taken a moment to trade notes—Tseng still had to check on the rest of the executives, so he'd asked Sephiroth to search the rest of that floor for monsters—and were thankful to know all the floors from fifty-six and up were now clear.

As he was debating going back down or checking above to be sure, his PHS rang, so he checked it—and saw Lunaria's (his mother's! That was still mind-boggling) number, so answered it with, "Are you well, M—Doctor?"

"I'm fine, but I'm not so sure about Vant," the woman replied. It sounded like there was distant battle noise in the background, something he likely only heard because of his Mako-enhanced hearing.

"What do you mean? Where are you?" he asked, gaze sharp and tone worried.

"I'm in the Presidential Lobby. Vant's upstairs fighting Hojo and one of Hojo's—creations," she replied, seeming to hesitate before saying the last word.

"With Hojo and a monster, Vant should be more than capable."

"Normally, I'd agree with you, General, but Hojo and Jenova have merged and the 'creation' isn't a 'monster', he's a clone—of _you_. Hojo named him Qliphoth and he's apparently the result of mixing your genetics with the same modifications he gave the other monsters. Vant may as well be fighting Jenova and a 'Nightmare' version of you." (1)

Sephiroth drew in a sharp breath, then turned to the stairs to head to the President's office. "I will be there shortly," he said, then hung up before she could reply.

It didn't take him long to get to floor sixty-nine, where Lunaria was waiting for him in the lobby—apparently with Heidegger's dead body—and he could hear the battle noise above more clearly. She gave him a quick hug as she said, "Be careful. Qliphoth won't be an easy opponent."

"I am aware of that," the silver haired man replied, turning to the stairs leading to the office above. "Stay safe," he added before he had taken more than a couple steps.

From partway up the stairs, he could see the state of the room and its occupants. It was a mess, with part of the ceiling having fallen in, nearly all the walls and some of the windows full of holes, and glass and debris scattered around. He could see a deformed, tentacled Hojo snarling in rage as his arms and tentacles healed from damage, and Qliphoth was just pushing himself up. Vant was outwardly 'damaged' by how his clothing had torn (or been cut) in many places, though the only sign of the real damage the man had taken was in how he leaned heavily on the wall, eyes showing faint pain. It was only a matter of time before Hojo realized Vant was Vincent Valentine, but it didn't seem he had yet.

The thought was verified as Hojo snarled, "Why are you so hard to kill, Turk?" The question produced a faintly amused smile from Vant.

Qliphoth launched another attack on Vant, and Sephiroth moved with a burst of speed, catching the clone's blade on his—and causing a moment of stunned shock to envelop the room. "You _do_ greatly resemble me, physically at least," he told the clone, who snarled and jumped back. "However, I have doubts about your skills, and sincerely doubt you could defeat me. Shall we test the theory—clone?"

"I am Qliphoth! I will prove I am the superior of us and become the one Mother and Father favor!" the clone declared, attacking him quickly.

As Sephiroth blocked every attempted strike, he thought his best option would actually be to give his clone the true information to work from—it had kept _him_ from going down a bad path, after all. To that end, he replied, "If by 'Mother' and 'Father', you mean Jenova and Hojo, they are _not my_ parents and you are welcome to them, thank you very much."

The clone jumped back with a puzzled frown, shaking his head. "They must be yours to be mine, otherwise my existence is a lie."

"Oh, you 'exist', but my parents are Doctor Lucrecia Crescent and Vincent Valentine, formerly of the Turks—genetically. Hojo only entered the equation to inject the cells of the parasite Jenova into me. Those genetics would be true of you as well, so yes, Hojo certainly has lied to you about who and what you are," Sephiroth explained calmly.

"So that's why you've become so resistant lately—you found out the truth," Hojo sneered. "How?"

Sephiroth blinked in momentary surprise as he turned his gaze to Hojo. "Do give me a good reason why I should humor you with such information, Professor. From my current position, there is _no_ viable reason you _could_ give."

Hojo was stewing in rage as several expressions crossed over Qliphoth's face—realization, betrayal, devastation, pain. After a moment, the clone screamed in rage and shot at Sephiroth again. "I did not wish to know any of that! I would have been happier knowing only the lie, not the truth! Die! Die slowly and painfully for what you have done to me!"

With a surprised blink at the words as he blocked the clone's much more reckless and erratic attacks, Sephiroth wondered why the clone was taking the truth so much worse than he had. The more erratic nature of the attacks meant he also had to focus much more on the battle at hand. He found himself comparing this more to Rosso the Crimson or the metamorphose experiments in Deepground than to Behemoths and Dragon Zombies from the Northern Crater, which was what he'd compared the other monsters to. It didn't take long for the sheer force of the attacks they were exchanging to effectively push them onto the roof, and even partially into the air above the building.

That was dangerous...

A crash below them signaled the battle between Hojo and Vant resuming. He could only hope Vant knew when to stop holding back, since it looked like Qliphoth was going to keep him busy for some time.

FoW

Jessie had been having one incredibly bad day. If she'd known it would be so bad, she'd have called in sick and stayed at home in bed. By all rights, things should have been relatively calm while Reeve was away, but instead, they had turned into a mess, and neither she nor Biggs had enough power alone to direct things properly—they'd have needed Shalua and Shelke to really be able to take Reeve's place.

None of that changed the chaos in the department as strange monsters which just wouldn't die descended on them, so she'd called Reeve for the codes into his rifle caches he'd put in various places around the department since the Wutain Invasion. He gave them to her, and she'd gotten the caches open, calling for everyone to grab weapons and fight—an effort which had been marginally effective, and had probably only worked because she'd picked up a weapon and fought personally. They'd still lost a lot of good people before Biggs got there with some of Weapons' robo-soldiers equipped with laser guns and chased the monsters away.

From there, everyone had been working hard to try to get the Reactor fluctuations under some semblance of control before they lost too many of the power transmission stations in the city. She'd been interrupted by Sora's arrival as the woman had said they needed to go shut down Reactor 0, even as she'd handed the younger woman a gas mask. A quick call to Reeve verified the plan, so she'd gone with the other woman, both of them knowing what they'd be going back to and willing to face it if it would stop the monsters.

"I wonder why they're avoiding the stairs," Jessie commented as she and Sora reached the second floor via the stairwell.

As they kept going to the first floor, Sora replied simply, "They have no need of them." She cautiously opened the door to the main floor lobby, then launched herself forward to strike a Destroyer to the ground, the younger woman blinking at her in surprise from the stairwell. The monster was rocking on the ground as it recovered. "Come quickly. We don't have long before it will recover—or more join it."

The Wutain woman led the way to the lift leading down to Deepground, opening up the solid-looking wall to reveal the lift. They stepped onto it and Sora shut the door behind them, then activated it so it could descend into Deepground, her eyes scanning their surroundings on the way. As it traveled in a downward spiral, she noticed scorch marks on the lift walls, so she told Jessie, "It looks like at least one monster got into Deepground somehow. Ready your weapon and prepare to head for the Reactor. I'll deal with any monsters we meet—your priority is to get the Reactor shut down."

Her voice was muffled and distorted by the mask, but her words were still clear, so Jessie drew the rifle from her back and braced herself for what she would find down there. If only Reeve's Master Code would work on Reactor 0, as it would have made the shut down and the reactivation so much easier, but no such luck. Because she had to go through the process manually, it would take around fifteen minutes to shut down fully.

Finally, after several minutes, the lift reached the bottom of its path, letting them step off into a room where a smoke haze was hanging and the exit door had been blown outward into the 'city' beyond. The two women cautiously moved to the open door, Sora in front, but there was no obvious enemy waiting for them, so the Wutain woman led the brown haired one through the streets as fast as she could. She chose the most direct route to the Reactor core access door, the trip to their destination quiet as they approached it—

Until a few steps from the door, when fire surged around them. Their saving grace was Sora activating a Mastered Leviathan, courtesy of Zack, to negate the flames and save them both from being scorched to death.

"Get to the core and begin the shut down!" Sora yelled, spinning and looking up in the direction the attack had come from. The younger one only paused long enough to follow her gaze when she gasped, "Ifrit!" Above them was a masculine, demonic-like being which was encased in flickering flames. (2) It had yellow, red-hued skin, rippling muscles, red, furry legs, hooves, horns, fangs, claws, and an oddly human-ish face with dark red hair. The fire elemental Summon was already preparing to launch another attack.

Jessie ran for the door and ran inside, shutting the door behind her as she ran for the core. It didn't take her long to scramble down the ladders, stairs, pipes, and walkways to the heart of the Reactor. She quickly scanned the panel attached to the core mechanism, hands moving to various knobs and buttons as she came to the ones she needed, as she needed them. Each change she made caused the patterns of lights on the panel to change. Every so often, she had to stop to shut a valve (or open one in a few cases), otherwise the core risked overheating, and if that happened, it would explode—definitely a bad thing.

Suddenly, she froze and hissed a soft curse.

One of the outer valves was stuck open, and she had to assess whether it was one she could leave until she'd done the rest at the core or if she had to shut it first. Based on which valve it was and where it would link to, she thought she could most likely leave it be for the moment, but it wasn't until she got input from the blue illusion stones that she knew for sure she could leave it. Nothing would overheat, but neither would leaving it interfere with the power supply to the Shinra building—that would all go out, even with valve open, and she'd just have to shut it in order to shut off all power to Deepground itself. That was doable, so she'd stay there to finish what she was doing, first.

That assessed, she quickly got back to work. It didn't take her too long to finish shutting down everything she could in there, then she headed up into the maintenance paths above the entrance walkway. Jessie climbed up nearly to the top of the Reactor in those paths, then used one hatch to climb out onto the top dome of the Reactor body near the massive pipes leading upward. It didn't take long for her to clamber over the domed roof to the large valve which hadn't shut—Mako smog blew out of it—at the base of those massive pipes.

Glancing around as she climbed, Jessie saw Sora looking somewhat singed (more than just the hole she'd already had in the back of her uniform shirt) while facing a steaming Ifrit which hovered in the air not far above her. It also looked like the older woman didn't have her mask anymore. However, Jessie had to choose to ignore the Summon and focus on getting to the valve, where she began pulling it down with her whole body weight—its handle was a little over half her height, so she'd have to pull on it more than once to close it.

This was probably the first time she was grateful for the half-finished experiments done on her, as it meant she could turn the valve further on each pull than a normal woman would be able to, which also meant it would take less time to close.

Suddenly, in the background, she heard Ifrit howl—

As Jessie was just finishing the last turn—she felt a burst of searing pain, then everything went black.

FoW

Sora had been fighting the Summon for between twenty and twenty-five minutes as he went in and out of recovery, but her eye widened as he suddenly turned away from her and shot off the most massive flame she'd ever seen him use in a random direction.

At least, she'd thought it was random as she'd traced its path with her eye—only to find Jessie in the path of that massive flame. "No, Jessie!" she yelled, but she already knew it was in vain. And, she was probably too far away for the younger woman to hear her, even if the warning would have been given in time.

A moment later, the flame hit the sixteen-year-old, completely incinerating her at the same time as all the power in Deepground went out and the hum of electrical energy stopped.

Sora knew Jessie's death was absolute because the light of Final Attack activating Revive didn't appear, leaving her with the awareness that there was nothing left to revive. She knew by the lack of power supply that Jessie had succeeded...

At the cost of her life.

She first felt cold shock, then fury. There was no heat, but her Limit Break was so powerful she literally exploded with light and energy before the illusion of a serpentine being rose from her and lashed out at Ifrit, sending him into recovery in one shot. When he came out of it, her Limit Break hadn't ended yet, so she used 'Serpent's Fangs' again, sending him back into recovery one more time. She was finding the amount of Mako smog floating in the air in Deepground extremely annoying right then, even though much of it had been cleaned up by the Summon absorbing it to recover. Her Limit Break broke at that point, so she knew she'd have to kill him herself one more time—she hoped _only_ one more time.

Her thoughts turned to Jessie and her death—and the sudden realization that she'd have to try to reactivate the Reactor herself, or just sit there for some days until someone could afford to come looking for her. And with Jessie's death hanging over her, weighing her down...

Thoughts distracted as they were, she didn't realize Ifrit had recovered until he struck her, tossing her into the wall of a building and promptly causing it to collapse on top of her. She shoved herself up and attacked the Summon again, several times in quick succession, earning a few blows as well in retaliation. However, after so long fighting, even if she was tired, Mako enhancements still gave her an edge, especially when Ifrit was blazingly easy to see in the near-absolute darkness in Deepground.

It didn't take her long to down the fire Summon again, and that time—he didn't get up again.

For a minute, she stood there silently in complete darkness, then drew in a shaky breath and trudged in the direction of the Reactor, thankful for the 'night vision' effect of Mako. She felt numb as she climbed up onto it once she'd reached it, and stayed that way as she headed for where she'd seen Jessie last. At that place, the pipes were badly scorched, but were sturdy and holding. Under the valve was a pile of ash with...some glinting objects in it?

Leaning down, Sora sifted through the ash with a silent apology to Jessie for disturbing her remains, and quickly came up with several objects—two blue stones of a type she'd never seen before, and all of the Materia the younger woman had been keeping on her person. There were only five of those, the Final Attack and Revive pair, Sense, Time, and Restore. Taking those seven items, she gave a small sigh and put them in her pocket, then carefully settled the ash into a neat pile.

"I am so sorry I couldn't protect you..." she whispered in Wutain, taking a prayer stance for a moment.

Something thrummed in her senses at the words, like a gentle warmth, making her start. She waited for a few minutes, but when nothing further happened, she rose and headed back down to the base of the Reactor. There, she sat against the outside wall of the building, thinking hard about what she should do and wondering what her next step would actually be.

As much as she was a soldier and had been for years, that didn't mean she wanted to see people die or that it didn't hurt when they did. Her time on the battlefield had taught her to treasure those around her because they could die at any time, and to force herself to remember the good times she'd had with them rather than wallowing in self-pity. She'd lost a lot of good friends over the years, and many more friendly acquaintances, all of them good people. If she had allowed herself to wallow in self-pity, she would have just given up and committed suicide long before she ended up in Deepground...Long before she'd met Shelke, and through the girl, the people who were now her family.

Losing Jessie was no less difficult than any other loss, and it would take time to adapt to, but she wasn't going to wallow. Whether she would cry at some point...she likely would, though the 'when' would depend largely on how long she would be isolated in Deepground.

Something pushed the thought of 'calling Tseng' into her mind, so she heeded it and drew her PHS to put the call through, glad they still worked with the power out. Absently, she wondered how long their batteries would last—long enough to resolve the situation in the city, or not?

"What's the matter, Sora? I'm in the middle of a battle right now," Tseng answered the call, breath panting slightly, though his voice was still steady. Forced steadiness, she thought.

"Jessie is dead. You'll have to call Reeve and let him know I'll need instruction to re-activate the Reactor," she said—and found herself drawing in a shaky breath as tears came to her eyes. The numbness hadn't lasted long...

He drew in a sharp breath, then there was a pause (in the silence, she could hear the noise of battle in the background through the phone) before he said in a flat voice, "I'll let him know. No matter what, we aren't leaving you down there until he gets back, so—just hang tight. I'll—get a report on what happened from you after the immediate problem is taken care of."

"All right," she agreed quietly. "I'll let you return to your battle, then." With that, she hung up—

And promptly burst into tears as she drew her knees up to her chest, rested her head on them, and wrapped her arms around both knees and head. Now she knew that, over the time she'd known Jessie, the younger woman had honestly been a friend, and the pain of her loss was far too much to ignore or be put off. She was suddenly thankful for the isolation in Deepground, where nothing would interrupt her for hours while the others cleaned up the city above.

 **Notes:**

(1) In the original FFVII, it was Sephiroth who went completely insane and became known as 'the Nightmare'. This reference is essentially saying Qliphoth is the one who would become 'the Nightmare' because Sephiroth is now on a completely different path.

(2) No, this Ifrit isn't the same as Genesis'—if you'll recall all the way back in Catalyst Array when they were in Costa del Sol, Genesis gave Eden an Ifrit WHICH WAS FEMALE, and Genesis stated that a Summon of a particular gender would produce a 'baby' of the same gender. As such, both Genesis and Eden have female Ifrits, and the genetic data for this MALE Ifrit came from somewhere else.


	28. 26-MiM: Chaos

Monsters in Midgar: Chaos

Shelke had been surprised when the building rocked during her Materia class, and had been even more surprised to feel a strange spark as something seemed to invade her senses. It had been frightening to feel at first, until she felt a sense of warmth and a request to please help 'her', because 'she' _needed_ to shut down the power in the city before the monsters overran everyone, and 'she' _needed_ to save the redeemed Calamity's child—both of them. 'She'd' said it was so hard for 'her' to do with the Reactors, though 'she' could still manipulate that to some degree, but there was only one way 'she' could save those two children. For that, 'she' needed a host to carry 'her' to them, and Shelke was nearly the only one who could—certainly the best of the couple 'she'd' possibly be able to ask.

The girl'd had no idea how she could possibly help or be the best one to do so, but she had agreed to play host to the being. Her body had begun moving on autopilot to retrieve the package Doctors Kedran and Blythe had passed on to her, then had gotten up and walked out of the room, filled to the brim with Lifestream energy. Because she'd done so at about the same time as something began tearing a hole in the ceiling, no one even saw her leave. In the meantime, as she'd headed for the stairs, the Lifestream (what had Eden and Genesis called her? Minerva?) told her the ability she had was a side-effect of a powerful Cetra Healer's skills being suppressed. As Shelke assessed that to mean her SND was a variant of Healer's skills, the girl was stunned.

As she'd been climbing the stairs steadily, the girl absently unwrapped the paper from the weapons—laser daggers—inside it, the same weapon she'd used in Deepground while she'd been there. Dropping the paper, she had begun strapping it on, and when she'd finished, she followed Minerva's instruction to leave the stairs to go to the elevator—it would be an easier route to the top of the building. As such, she'd headed for it while on the sixteenth floor, and found it reaching that floor quickly. After she'd gotten on, she sent it up to the sixty-ninth floor.

While it had made its way up, Shelke had used her laser daggers to knock—or rather, burn—out the screws holding the upper maintenance hatch in place, then climbed up onto the bannister below the hatch so she could push it out of the way and climb onto the elevator top. After replacing the hatch, she'd simply sat there as she'd stared upward, watching the cords and pulleys move as the elevator rose.

When it had reached the top floor and stopped, she'd shifted to her knees and peered around for a vent or other maintenance shaft—which she found soon after. She had climbed into the vent—she was so small it was easy—and had worked her way from there to the roof, all while hoping she wouldn't get hit in the battle between Vant, Qliphoth, and Hojo.

Then Sephiroth had joined them, and he and Qliphoth had moved to the roof to fight, both of the ones Minerva had needed her to help. She had pulled herself out of the vent and waited quietly for the time when Minerva wanted her to act.

She really didn't end up waiting that long, either.

FoW

Hojo was definitely angry. Very angry. So was Jenova.

Vant had fought Hojo for a few more minutes after Sephiroth and Qliphoth had moved to the roof before the power in the Shinra building had _finally_ gone out.

The next thing he knew was that he was pinned to the wall with a hole in his gut which was filled by more than one of Hojo's tentacles. He stared down at the hole and tentacles for a moment in disgusted (feeling tentacles wiggling around in your body was singularly sickening), bemused horror. All this time in battle and Hojo had only now managed to do him _real_ damage? Somehow, that was also pretty amazing.

Suddenly, a voice spoke into his mind, _:I am taking over, host.:_ He knew the voice as Chaos'.

A moment later, dark light enveloped his body, shearing off the tentacles as he felt himself _change_. He couldn't see anything through the darkness, but the sensation of the change was so different from anything he'd felt before. Immediately, he knew it was nothing like the other transformations Hojo had given him, such as Galian Beast (Chaos had never felt like those), but it also didn't feel like his transformations to Chaos normally did. There was something uniquely different about it this time, and he couldn't put his finger on it, though now it felt like the transformation fit him properly.

All previous times he had become Chaos, the bestiality and wildness of the form—and his own loss of control—had caused him to associate Chaos with a being little better than a beast with no more sentience than a dog or Guard Hound. Since meeting Eden, however, he'd begun to see Chaos as a being less bestial and more protective, the shortcomings in his transformed state having been the result of his own resistance to those other forms, his own belief that he had been made into a monster. Now, he knew better. He wasn't a monster, and he was fairly sure Chaos wasn't, either.

Then, the darkness began to clear, and he watched it with further bemusement as he noted Chaos' awareness hovering at the back of his mind while sending him a sense of approval. For the first time, he was becoming Chaos without losing himself, his sanity—which made the truth of how his own beliefs had affected him hit home.

When the darkness cleared fully, his body had become purple-hued, somewhat more bony and lanky, a few feet taller, and had sprouted horns and bat-like wings. He had fangs and claws as well, but not prominently like the other features. The hole Hojo had left in his body had nearly fully closed over, and was still mending rapidly—a state which was obvious on his now barely-covered body, which apparently only wore a loincloth.

His gaze lifted to Hojo's stunned one as he leaned forward and gave the man a smirk. "Nice try, Hojo," he said quietly in amusement.

"Chaos! Vincent Valentine!" Hojo gasped, gaze suddenly comprehending and frightened—but fascinated at the same time.

The next attack Hojo launched at him tossed him right out through the wall, even as the man landed on top of him while trying to strangle him. Both fell through open air for several feet, until Chaos' wings caught them and his shadow power tossed the man away from him. As Hojo began falling in his Jenova hybrid form, he sprouted oddly deformed, butterfly-like wings and caught himself with them. Once the two were aloft independently, they eyed one another warily.

Until a shout not far above them sounded, and both looked up to see Sephiroth falling with Qliphoth on top of him, both of them caught in a struggle for Sephiroth's sword. They plunged rapidly towards the ground head-first—with no wings to catch them.

"Sephiroth!" Vant/Chaos shouted in alarm, diving towards them—only to snarl as Hojo hit him from the side with a vicious attack of his own. There was a manic grin on the mad scientist's face—

And Vincent/Vant/Chaos had had _enough_.

Shadow energy exploded from Chaos' body and began eating away Hojo's/Jenova's body very rapidly, much the way a corrosive acid would. Hojo apparently realized what was going on and shrieked in alarm before the sense of _Jenova_ flared and the light in Hojo's eyes went out to be replaced by a red-green glow. The Jenova body's deterioration slowed...

FoW

Falling from the top of a seventy story building was _not_ Sephiroth's idea of a good way to end a battle. Unfortunately, Qliphoth didn't even seem to realize they _were_ falling and was still trying to claim Masamune, as though it would make a difference when they both went splat in a few seconds. Well, the total fall time was around fifteen seconds, and they'd been falling for three. Same difference to the end result.

A shout made him glance past Qliphoth—only for his eyes to widen as he saw Shelke falling towards them twice as fast as he and Qliphoth were falling! She had eyes glowing so brilliantly green that the light from them was flaring almost like wings around her head and her expression seemed dazed and unaware.

She hit them in the next second, and both silver haired men gasped as light and energy flowed around and through them. With his vision nothing but white, Sephiroth blinked his eyes to try to clear them—but then green began outlining swirling bands of white. Shelke appeared in front of his eyes, then a regal woman dressed in a white robe and gold armor lifted from the girl's body, allowing Shelke to drop into his arms.

 _:Thank you, little child of mine,:_ the blond woman said to Shelke—without moving her lips. A small, dazed nod and murmur was Shelke's only reply, but then the woman looked up and met Sephiroth's gaze. _:I had once known you as the Calamity's Child, the Nightmare. You have truly come so far that you are one I welcome here. I no longer fear you, regardless of what you carry in your body. Knowing the Calamity as another of my kind would designate you as one of my children as well. The one made of you is also my child, and I have repaired his mind and body so he may have an opportunity to live his life, not as your shadow, but as himself. As he is now, he will need your protection, as he is small and helpless._

 _:Silver Sentinel, know that you need never fear for your own life so long as you remember to care, to always care about those around you. Help lead people down a new path, one of acceptance and tolerance, and never fear those lingering fragments of the Calamity within you, embrace them. You are their master, they are not yours, and at this moment, you have two other lives to save.:_ The light began to clear as she once more murmured, _:Embrace them.:_

When he could see again, he blinked because of several things he had to assess all in a moment.

One was that he hadn't fallen at all during the time he had been in that space.

Another was that both his arms held a weight, an unconscious Shelke being one of them, and—a glace at the other showed him a baby who was about four months old, a boy with no clothing, a dusting of silver hair, and eyes just like his.

The third was that there was a writhing mass of darkness above him, though as he watched in that moment, it shrunk and redirected to a specific point.

A green—something—which was part liquid fell past them with some sort of shriek.

Then he remembered they were falling, and if he didn't do something, Shelke and the infant Qliphoth would die with him.

His mind flashed back to the words to 'embrace' Jenova's cells in his body, but to what end?

A moment later, he remembered Genesis' wings—and pain exploded along his back as the back of his shirt and coat tore. The pain vanished as quickly as it had come, and he felt the wind catch on something attached to his back as they stopped falling. All he needed to do was look back over his right shoulder to see one glossy, black wing sprouting from it. He then looked back up at the ball of shadows above him and realized he somehow recognized his father—Vincent, or Vant as he was now (or Chaos?)—in that energy, so carefully directed his wings to carry him back up to a point near it.

It was only once he stopped there that he realized he had tears running down his cheeks, but for the life of him, he had no idea _why_.

FoW

When Vant felt the deterioration slow and saw more and more features on Hojo's body becoming something twisted and warped like Jenova would do, Vant asked Chaos how he could get more impact to shove back harder. Chaos showed him how to push harder on his own energy release while focusing it on a specific target, causing a struggle between Jenova's energy and Chaos' energy to ensue while all he could see was darkness and Jenova—

And then, they were both gone, both Hojo and Jenova.

The whole process had only taken about ten seconds.

Ten seconds too long.

He turned to seek out his son—only to stare in surprise as he saw him hovering several feet away with a black bird's wing sprouting from one shoulder, an unconscious Shelke in one arm, a nude, four-month-old baby boy in the other—and tears streaming down his cheeks. As far as processing what had happened went, the tears could have been a pain reaction to the wing, and because he knew Genesis also had one, it wasn't a far cry to say Sephiroth had always had one laying in reserve as well.

However, there were two things he _couldn't_ process.

Where had Shelke come from?

Where had _the baby_ come from?

"Sephiroth..." he began, but stopped. He wasn't even sure where to begin, what he wanted to say or ask first.

Giving his head a shake, the silver haired man replied, "Minerva used Shelke to speak with me, and to repair Qliphoth's damaged mind and body. Her repairing him apparently reverted him to an infant state...She said he would need my protection, but you and my mother are his parents as well. I am...uncertain what to do or what I wish to do. And before making such a decision, we _need_ to assist the people in the city before too many more die."

At the words, both looked down into the darkened city, seeing with their enhanced sight how many of the monsters had converged around the base of the Shinra building, where battle was raging. A look up at the rooftop showed the President and Lunaria there, both of them watching the two men.

Making a sudden decision, Chaos/Vant said, "For now, it would be best to leave Shelke and the baby in Lunaria's care. When Shelke wakes, she should be capable of acting as their guard, and Lunaria will at least be capable of caring for the child for the moment."

With a nod, Sephiroth flew up to the two adults on the roof, set Shelke on the inside of the two-foot wall, and handed the baby to Lunaria as he exchanged a few words with them. Vant/Chaos then watched as he flew back down to where he waited, and both agreed one of their first targets had to be the Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles, which Sephiroth immediately chose to go to the Slums to deal with. Vant/Chaos agreed to join him there once he'd given a hand to the people fighting to protect the Shinra building and taken care of the flying monsters Plate-side.

With that, both flew down into the city and parted ways.

FoW

Tseng was beginning to wonder if his illusion stones were actually prophetic after some of the data the blue one had given him. Clarity was one thing, but these ones were telling him to take certain actions to open paths to the best possible outcome. Was that part of the influence of the 'time' effect on clarity? If it was, he had a whole lot to learn about the pair, and in the meantime, they were becoming a Goddess-send.

When he'd first gotten to floor sixty-six with Lunaria, there had been several monsters there, and he'd been required to start killing them. To his surprise, Lunaria had helped a bit using lingering 'features' Jenova had left her with—a clawed hand or a tentacle which quickly vanished again and were the same color as her skin. She didn't do it much, really only enough to stay alive if he wasn't quite quick enough. A few times, she even stabbed one with a Tranquilizer, which made him chuckle in spite of himself.

However, as they had been working their way through the floor, he had suddenly been informed by the blue stone that it would be best to send the woman to check on Vant and the President. He had done so, but still had no clear idea why—only that it had apparently been important. When Sephiroth had shown up there to help him with the pair of Blood Tastes he'd been working on outside Palmer's office, he had requested the man's help to finish clearing the floor, and the silver haired SOLDIER had agreed, so he had left that to the General.

He'd taken a moment to send messages to all the Turks in the city that when the power went out, they were to head for the foot of the Shinra building, where the monsters were going to gather. A few checked it right away, some checked later, three apparently didn't check at all (Alvis, Maur, and Kariya), and one didn't go through (Vant). It worried him, but he still had other things he needed to do, like checking on Palmer and the new Weapons head, so he headed into Palmer's office.

Palmer was badly injured, and the Weapons Department head tried to stem the flow of blood from one of the worst gaping wounds. When a Full Cure didn't help the man, the blue stone gave him the input to know it would be at least five hours before the hospitals—any of them in the city—would be capable of taking any patients. Knowing that was too long with Palmer's injuries, Tseng shot him to end his suffering and the prolonged death he'd have had otherwise. (1) He then cast a Full Cure on the Weapons head (he'd also been injured, but Full Cure had worked for the most part) and several others who had come to see what was going on once the monsters had been taken care of. Most were injured, and some had left injured companions to get help, so Tseng went with them to heal anyone still alive. Two more he'd had to grant a mercy killing to, but the others he could save.

By then, the city power was out and they were just waiting on the Shinra building's power to go out, so he called Lazard to tell him to redirect everyone he could, except the Turks, to the building, then took the elevator to head to the main floor lobby. When he stepped outside to face the monsters he knew would be there, he glanced around to see Zack, several other SOLDIERs, Emma, Kariya (where was Maur?), and some Infantrymen. There were even some of Weapons' robo-soldiers and machine guards, the most notable being some sort of scorpion-like monstrosity. More and more monsters were joining them as he fought alongside the building's other defenders—

 _Where the Hellfire_ had Hojo gotten _so damned many_ monsters?

Shortly after he stepped outside to join the battle, the power went out in the building, and a few minutes after that, some sort of green slime hit the cement after apparently having fallen from above them, causing a short halt in the battle. The slime, if it had ever been something else before then, had landed on and killed a few other monsters, so even _they_ had stopped for a few moments in obvious confusion. In the meantime, there was now a green, slippery puddle and a rather deep gouge in the cement where it had hit. If anything, it proved the 'splat' theory, and everyone knew it had fallen from pretty high up. It would have been funny in other circumstances.

Of course, the reprieve was short and they were immediately back into battle.

It was somewhat odd that the monsters were still all focused on the building with the power out, but at least they were easier to kill—if there weren't so, so many of them...

The burden was lessened a few more minutes later as Illis stepped outside, followed by a large portion of the Academy students in the combat classes, and they all joined the fight with the intent to kill the monsters, spreading out around the base of the building. Many seemed to be venting on the monsters, letting him know they had lost someone they were close to. What he _didn't_ see were any of their kids, not even Yufi, who should have been with Illis.

"The kids, Illis?" he asked her as she paused by him to pick her best place to fight.

"We can't find Shelke, and—Shalua has lost an arm," Illis answered tightly.

"I see," Tseng replied, feeling off-balance.

Suddenly, his PHS rang, and a check showed him Sora's number. "What's the matter, Sora? I'm in the middle of a battle right now," he answered, panting slightly as he fought to keep his voice even. A call from her couldn't mean anything good.

"Jessie is dead. You'll have to call Reeve and let him know I'll need instruction to re-activate the Reactor," she said, and he could hear her draw in a shaky breath.

He drew in a sharp breath, then his mind went blank for a moment before he said in a flat voice, his emotion shoved away into a little box to deal with later, "I'll let him know. No matter what, we aren't leaving you down there until he gets back, so—just hang tight. I'll—get a report on what happened from you after the immediate problem is taken care of."

"All right," she agreed quietly. "I'll let you return to your battle, then." With that, she hung up.

Tseng sighed as he looked out at the battlefield again, noting how many monsters there still were. So many of them, so many more than Hojo should have been able to create, even if they included the labs outside the city...

So many people had died, and he—already knew it wasn't just unknown civilians this time, which would have been bad enough. They were all just so tired, and the Academy students, who hadn't been spending the last few weeks in steady battle, were turning out to be their saving grace.

A sudden shriek above them made the monsters cringe—then a purple-skinned, bat-winged humanoid shrouded in shadows plunged into the middle of the battlefield, wiping out over half the monsters to that side of the building in that one blow. A moment later, it was back in the air, shooting balls of shadowy energy at the Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles which caused them to dissolve. Apparently, the flying monsters couldn't dodge those bolts, so it took him—maybe about two minutes to kill them all. Once they had been taken care of, the winged humanoid flew away, heading for the city outskirts.

"...What was that?" Emma asked in a slightly dazed tone as she stopped beside him to reassess her best place to shoot from with the change in the battlefield. Illis was still standing with him, and Kariya had stepped back from the immediate battle zone.

All of the Turks watched in some bemusement as Zack quite happily and single-handedly tore through what was left of the monsters. Well, more accurately, he was killing about a third of them and just sending the rest flying so everyone else got to take a short breather—even he couldn't literally kill them all.

"...I think that was Chaos. That is, Vant's strongest transformation," Tseng replied after a pause, and the blue illusion stone was apparently in agreement with the thought.

"...Vant..." Illis muttered. "He's been holding that in reserve this whole time?"

Zack was still going without showing any signs of exhaustion, so Kariya and Emma actually sat down on the stairs to rest, and some others from the Infantry joined the two of them.

"Chaos is...not to be used carelessly. The world must be perilously close to destruction right now for him to be in that form," Tseng sighed softly. "We're running out of time..."

The others traded alarmed looks, then returned to the battle at hand, Tseng directing Emma to take Zack on a tour around the building to alleviate some of the pressure all the way around. It was going to be a long fight, even with the extra help Vant/Chaos had given them.

 **Notes:**

(1) Tseng is taking this action because he knows through the blue illusion stone that there is no chance these people will get help on time, and leaving them alive to die slowly would be akin to torture. No, he's not enjoying it and doesn't want to have to, but he would rather spare them the pain than cause them more suffering. If he'd had no way to know the timing, or if he'd felt there was a chance the injured individual could have gotten help on time, he wouldn't have done this.


	29. 27-MiM: Result

Monsters in Midgar: Result

Felicia had been fighting in the Sector 7 Slums until the Abyss Worms and Death Claws were dead, largely ignoring every other monster there—her people would take care of the small fries. In the grand scheme of things, it hadn't taken her all that long to defeat them, but as she made her way into Sector 6 (just in time to see two Death Claws and a Funny Face kill a SOLDIER), she realized that what they had been dealing with elsewhere was nothing compared to there. For every one monster she'd seen in Sector 7, Sector 6 and Wall Market had four times that.

She could only stare in something like horror for a few moments, then quickly sent out an alert to all her people—other than the Abyss Worm and Death Claw hunters, like Shears—to head for Sector 6. The Abyss Worm and Death Claw hunters would have to finish what they were doing in their current Sector, then head that way. In addition, there was no possible way she'd be able to get through Sector 6 to Sector 5 to check on Elmyra. There was no other option but to jump into the mess and start salvaging what was left in that area, though she didn't think too much outside Corneo's would still be in half-way decent shape.

As such, she began wading her way through monster wave after monster wave, some of her people quickly flanking her as she did. While the battle wasn't generally 'hard' for her, it was most definitely time-consuming, the numbers overwhelming with every reviving addition to it.

All of a sudden, the power went out and everyone realized the monsters were dying in one kill now, which admittedly took several minutes with the last few double revivers, and she gave a faint smile as she called out, "The Turks figured it out! Let's get this cleaned up!"

Everyone gave a sudden cheer and pushed forward into the Wall Market area, pulling civilian survivors out of the mess as they went. Machines of various strange configurations and bearing the Shin-Ra logo began dropping into the mess, many of them in the basic form of some sort of monster and generally quite mobile. They only attacked the monsters or a human who directly attacked them, so ended up becoming reasonable battle partners.

Sometime while they were fighting, General Sephiroth descended on them from above, slaughtering many of the monsters on the ground very quickly before turning his attention to the Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles in the air above them. After he'd defeated many of those, he flew away in the direction of Sectors 5 and 4. Everyone could only stare in surprise at the single, black wing sprouting from his right shoulder blade.

"Well..." Felicia began, feeling like she should scratch her head.

Rather than that, she kept fighting several more of the monsters, mostly Abyss Worms and Death Claws again, then froze as she caught sight of something on the ground. Moving over to it, she reached down and picked up a single, white-yellow flower like one kind Aeris grew only at her home, not at the Church.

"...Elmyra...?" she blinked at the flower, then looked up and around. While there was blood on the ground, most of the bodies had already reverted to pyreflies, so she couldn't immediately see any signs of the woman.

Distracted as she was, she didn't realize she was being attacked by an Abyss Worm until it collapsed behind her with Reno on its back. His expression was strange, but—he was a Turk, so she called, "Have you seen any traces of a woman with dark brown hair and dark eyes, usually wearing a green dress, Reno?"

He gave a slow blink, then frowned slightly like he was puzzled. Finally, he pointed in the direction of some of Wall Market's craft and tailoring supply shops and said, "Try over there. Dunno if it'll help ya, though. An' pay attention to your surroundings, yo!" he added with a final glare, then jumped from his perch to strike down one of the very last Evil Eyes in the area (where had all the _rest_ disappeared to?) and vanished into the thick of battle, followed by a prancing, one-horned horse she assumed was Unicorn.

Making her way in the direction of the indicated shops, Felicia found just as many monsters there as there had been elsewhere, so had to focus on killing them—until she found a splatter surrounded by dirty bits of torn, green cloth. Not far from them, she saw a glint of metal, and quickly retrieved the item—and could only stare in stunned horror at Elmyra's wedding ring, which she had never removed, even after getting the notice of her husband's death.

Aeris' (adoptive) mother was dead. How would Aeris feel to hear that?

She didn't have time to think on it because the monsters were still coming, so she had to return to the battle right then. Later, who knew, but when she saw Vant there and Sephiroth back after whatever he'd left to do, along with other SOLDIERs, she knew she had to keep fighting. Shears had joined them, and there were several 'criminals' in the mix, some of those even having apparently abandoned Corneo to protect civilians. The last was a positive sign, and when the immediate disaster was over, she would be asking them to join Gaia's Refuge instead.

When the monsters were finally defeated and the cheering started, she was interrupted by a message on her PHS from SOLDIER Director Lazard Deusericus. It surprised her momentarily, but then she saw in the note that Tseng had told him to get in touch with her to make sure the Slums were clear of monsters. In other words, he needed her and her people to organize the final sweep before the power got turned back on, so she began organizing the sweep. It was mildly surprising to be able to add the SOLDIERs and Turks present there to the list of sweepers, but as soon as she had Sephiroth's agreement to coordinate, all the others accepted as well.

Because of the General's support, the sweep was quickly organized and taken care of, and she got the final reports in sooner than she'd expected. Of course, Sephiroth's new-found ability for flight helped greatly in that, but once she had the last one, she put through a call to Lazard just long enough to say, "Lower Plate Sectors One through Eight clear."

She then paused and pulled it out again to send a note to Tseng: _I know you probably don't want to hear this, let alone this way, but Elmyra Gainsborough is dead, and I'll be stopping by in a day or two to give you something and discuss this further._

Note sent, she turned her attention to maintaining order and trying to find places for the civilians. Finally, after almost five hours without power anywhere in the city, it came back on.

FoW

The battle outside the Shinra building had finally wound down, and Tseng sat down on the steps as he took out his PHS. Admittedly, after what he and Eden had done on the President's Office balcony during the Wutain Invasion, this hadn't drained him so much. It hadn't been so intensive or rapid, and because of Chaos' three-minute support, it had actually not taken as long. There had been pauses to rest, even if those pauses were only a minute or two at a time, and—there had been more than two people fighting them all.

However, their work wasn't done yet.

He dialed Lazard's number, and the man picked up with the words, "Did you know your command center door doesn't open without power?"

The Wutain gave an amused (and short-lived) snort and said, "It does, you'd just have to be familiar enough with the room to find a flashlight and activate the manual override. In the meantime, since our phones still work, I need you to coordinate a sweep for monsters. In the building, you're going to have to get in touch with your own people, Weapons, and the Academy kids. We have to be sure they're _all_ dead before we turn the power back on."

"And besides the mercenaries and SOLDIERs in the Slums—there aren't very many to coordinate that with—do you have any ideas of who I could ask?"

"Chief Felicia Pereld, the leader of Gaia's Refuge. They have a significant presence there, so would be your better bet. They also are best equipped to coordinate with everyone else you have down there right now. I'll forward you her number."

Lazard gave a small sigh and said, "I'll get in touch with her, first, then get started on arranging the sweep on the Upper Plate. Use the time to rest."

"I had planned to," Tseng agreed. "Thanks."

They both hung up, then the Wutain Turk typed Felicia's PHS number. Around him, everyone else began finding places to sit as well, the Turks gathered around him and the SOLDIERs gathered near Zack, who settled near them. The students began heading back inside the building, finding places in there to sit or going back to the Academy floors to find their friends. Most of the civilians, criminals, and mercenaries who had helped them sat or laid down where they were, obviously just as exhausted as the rest.

At that moment, Tseng remembered a thought from earlier and reached over to rest a hand on Kariya's shoulder. It shocked him to feel a flinch at the touch. "Kariya, where's Maur?" he asked quietly. Kariya looked up at him with a pained gaze and gave his head a shake before dropping his head into his hands, elbows braced on his knees.

A moment later, all the other Turks drew in sharp breaths as they realized what the reaction meant—Maur was dead.

Rubbing his eyes to ward off tears, Tseng said quietly, "We will have to talk about that later, Kariya. I have more bad news—apparently Shelke is missing and Shalua lost an arm in the attack." The man flinched, then looked up at him in horror. "As soon as we're able, we'll have to see what can be done for them." He wasn't quite able to keep the pain out of his voice. "We have to finish cleaning up the monsters, first, though." Kariya looked like he would argue, then just gave a nod and dropped his head back into his hands. "...Maybe I shouldn't have told you now..."

"I'd have hated to come across that on my own later," the older man replied tiredly, pain almost seeping off him, for lack of a better way to explain the man's reaction.

Soon after, Lazard began coordinating the sweep of the city, and Tseng found he was impressed by the man's memory of intra-Sector area lines, as he knew the man was sitting in a completely black room with no available reference material. It didn't take long to allocate people to searches, but it took significantly longer to actually complete the searches. Finally, after nearly five hours, he was able to call Reeve to have him give the okay to turn all the Reactors back on, as well as to have him call Sora and see if he could instruct her on how to re-activate Reactor 0.

It wasn't long after that when a text message from Felicia came in, and when he read it—he felt himself falling sideways against the nearest wall in shock. Jessie and Maur definitely dead, Shalua missing an arm, Shelke just missing, and now Elmyra definitely dead? Who _else_ were they going to get such news about?

A sudden memory of a—slimy thing—hitting the pavement not that long before Vant came down on them made him draw his PHS and find the man's number to call him—only to remember his phone wasn't connecting. The blue illusion stone prompted him to call Lunaria instead, so he did.

She answered with, "How are things looking out there, since our power's not back on yet?"

"I've gotten in touch with Reeve to see about the power issue. I want to hope against hope that you can give me some good news. Do you have any idea where Shelke Rui is?" he asked, hoping the blue stone was right.

"She's here—once she woke up, she's been acting as our guard, though I'm not sure we need one now," Lunaria replied. "Do you want to talk with her?"

"No—just...if she's safe, at the first available opportunity, she'll need to go find her sister and her father. And Doctor Valentine...it's especially important that she see her sister, because Shalua lost an arm in the attack."

The woman drew in a sharp breath and said, "I'd help if we had any supplies to help _with_ at the moment. Are you heading back any time soon?"

"No. We're busy running patrols and trying to pull people out of the rubble, but—I just had to hope Hojo hadn't made off with her. Thank you."

"Good luck, then."

He hung up and went back to his assigned task as he sent a text message to Kariya that Shelke was safe with the President and Doctor Valentine.

Like when all the power went out, the Reactors which were restored first were the eight city Reactors, which caused a flurry of activity as everything began working again. The first out were the emergency personnel.

In the meantime, the second problem they had in the city was that criminals—ones who hadn't participated in clearing the monsters—were robbing various homes and stores, and sometimes harming or killing people. It had happened in the Slums, too, though not so severely as there was far less of value there. They had noticed and stopped as much of that as they could during the sweep, but the problem persisted even after the power came back on, so it ended up taking over five more hours before things settled down again.

Of course, that just drained everyone even more, and even _Zack_ was tired by then—and they were all _starving_ , having all missed lunch and supper, and the time now approaching midnight.

It was also during the time since the power came back on when they found out most of the Infantry commanders had either hightailed it out of the city or gone into hiding in it, leaving only low-ranking privates and cadets for the most part. Some of those had fled (in the cadets' case, that was actually understandable because they had next to no training), leaving only a few officers and some Privates who had joined because of a desire to protect people. It hadn't been much, but at least some of them had made an effort, and their help had been appreciated.

At least the power in Shinra Headquarters _had_ come back on, though it ended up taking about half an hour after they had given the okay, and their hospital facilities were able to be put into functional use sooner than many of the ones in the city. It also meant the kitchen and food facilities were functional by late evening, and the cafeteria made an extra-large meal which they started serving when everyone fighting started returning. Danger passed, nearly everyone employed by Shinra ate, then went to sleep, all fully clothed and by merely falling into their beds, ignoring any holes in their floors and ceilings for the time being.

Most of them slept late, but Tseng still managed to get to the office by nine in the morning, tired or not. In his case, though, that was because his blue illusion stone told him to get up and get down there. He found out why when he saw Reno standing at the main office window, the reflection in the glass showing a blank gaze...and his shoulders trembling.

"Reno?" he asked as he approached the other young man.

At first, there was no reaction, then the red haired Turk gave his head a shake. "I was right, yo. This ain't no game, an' I can't pretend it is. Even what I saw in Deepground didn't prepare me for seein'—" Reno paused, then sighed, closing his eyes. "Every time I close my eyes, I see that Death Claw tearin' him apart, Tseng."

"...Him?" the Wutain asked with a sinking feeling.

"Alvis."

For a moment, Tseng just felt—like he was about to fall over, like vertigo.

Then, he stepped forward and rested a hand on Reno's shoulder, making the younger of them shake his head and give his eyes a rub. Reno and Alvis had been like brothers, and of all the Turks, Reno had spent the most time with the other red haired teen. After all, they used the same weapon, but Reno had two years more experience than Alvis, so he had been the one to train him—and not just in EMR use, but many other Turk skills as well. How much it would have hurt Reno to see him die would easily have been as bad or worse than Kariya seeing Maur's death.

"It's not shameful to cry over losing someone you cared about, Reno," he said softly, wrapping an arm around the younger Turk's shoulders. Reno turned to press his face into the Wutain's shoulder, quietly sobbing after having held it in for as long as he had. Tseng also let tears fall, because both Alvis and Maur had been people he had cared about too, and he had Jessie's and Elmyra's deaths to mourn as well; he needed to release some of that feeling.

It took them both almost an hour to stop crying, and the office was still empty, so Tseng released a small sigh and said, "You should try to sleep, Reno. It might not be easy right now, but you'll need the rest. We'll all need the rest."

"Heh," Reno snorted faintly, a bit of amusement laced into his voice. "Must be the first time you've told me ta sleep in the middle of the day, Bossman."

"We're not going to get much done today besides more clean-up, so you may as well. It looks like you were up all night."

The younger Turk paused, then sighed and pushed back from the Wutain. "Yeah. Thanks, yo." He wandered somewhat absently from the office—as President Shinra and Kariya walked into the room.

Tseng quickly wiped his face with one hand and put on a stony mask as he asked, "What can I do for you, President Shinra?"

"We need a full report on the incident, then I need to get in touch with Rufus to let him know what to expect when he and his escorts return," the blond man stated. "We have several holes to fill now as well, in many departments, and I need some of your assessments of individuals who may be able to fill the roles. How soon do you think you can get everything to me?"

Pausing to think about what the President was asking for (wasn't the man just cold towards all the deaths?), Tseng assessed how quickly he could possibly find and organize everything the man wanted. Finally, he said, "Between Chief Pereld, Director Lazard, and myself, we should be able to have a functional basic report ready by the end of the day. A more detailed report will take at least three days. In the meantime, I should also have assessments of people to you by the end of the day if you send me lists of individuals you have in mind and a list of positions you have no one in mind for."

"Good enough. By your usual quality of a 'functional report' that should be enough for me to allocate funds and support in required amounts. Oh, I've already chosen Director Lazard Deusericus and Doctor Page Blythe as Heidegger's and Hojo's replacements, so you don't have to worry about them." Shinra then huffed and added irritably, "That fool Hojo, slaughtering nearly the whole department! Blythe will have just as much work to do finding enough new assistants to keep the current department work from falling apart." He looked back up at Tseng and gave a nod. "I'll tell you right now, your priorities are finding someone to take the SOLDIER Director's place and Palmer's place, and I have no ideas about either of those. I'll be waiting for your reports and assessments, and I'll forward you a further list of what I need filled within the hour."

As soon as the man was gone, Kariya—whose gaze was pained—commented, "That guy's a right piece of work. It's not a wonder Eden assessed him the way he did."

"I can't deny that," Tseng sighed. "Maybe this isn't the best time with all the work I now have to do, but...How did Maur die?"

"...The Behemoth began transforming into a King Behemoth about the same time the power in the city went out. Maur didn't realize that while he was pinned by its paw, so he used a Quake Fist on it—and got hit with Flare at point-blank range. There's not a fuck of a lot that can block a counter, and that close...he was ash. Just...blackened ash," Kariya explained, reaching up to rub his eyes tiredly, but Tseng knew he was also wiping away tears. "Add to that Shalua's arm...I can only be thankful my girls are both still alive and here with me."

"That's very true, after I found out someone I knew in the Slums is dead, too." With a small sigh, Tseng added softly, "That Behemoth must have been pretty old to have transformed...We could never have known that would happen. And with Alvis gone, too..." He was silent for a moment before his shoulders slumped a bit and he asked, "Would it be too much to ask you for your help right now? I sent Reno away because he didn't sleep last night after seeing Alvis die...If you're not ready, either, you can go. I could see that you'd much rather be with Shalua and Shelke right now."

The older man looked up at him, but didn't say anything, so the Wutain turned to go to his office. It was logical to the think the man would want to mourn and be with his daughters, at least for one day, so he felt he would be working alone until the others started getting in after waking. And their help would be iffy as well after the two good Turks they'd just lost. He sat at his office desk tiredly and gave his eyes a rub before turning towards the shelves for the forms he would need—only to find Kariya quietly handing them to him.

"I'm not the only one who lost someone, Tseng," Kariya said quietly as the Wutain blinked at him in clear surprise. "You did, too. We all did. Sure, we could all take the easy way out and just not work, but all that would do—is destroy _you_. I've lost people before, people I cared about. People die, Tseng. It's when we lose the people we care about that we need to support one another the most. The President forcing you to work on such tight deadlines when you need to mourn—I can't let you carry that burden alone. I think once Reno's rested, he'll be back to help you, too. I think all the Turks will. Even with our own pain."

Slowly, Tseng reached up to take the papers, then gave a small, sad smile and said, "Thank you, Kariya. I think one of the first things I need you to find out is what happened to Vant while he was with the President and Hojo—everything that happened there is a blank to me."

"I can answer some of that," a woman's voice commented—only to be punctuated by a baby's soft coo. Both looked up to see Lunaria in the doorway with a four-month-old baby in a cute, green onesie in her arms.

Tseng blinked as Kariya cocked his head to the side and asked, "So...you and Vant already managed to make another kid, Doctor? Pretty quick, ain't it?"

The woman gave a derisive snort and said, "Well, he _is_ genetically mine and Vant's anyway, but no. Hojo cloned him from Sephiroth's genes, and for some reason, the Lifestream decided to fix the damage Hojo had done to him. (1) Incidentally, that reduced him to the age he should be based on when he was created—that is, four months. We already found as many of Hojo's records as we could on the experiments he released into Midgar, including 'Subject Q's'. However, we can't technically claim him without alerting the President—and everyone else in Shinra—to the fact that we aren't the 'identities' you gave us. Sephiroth, being his genetic origins, may be able to sway who gets him in the end, but I think for now, he'll have to stay in the labs. At least until it's safe for us to take him—and I don't think Sephiroth, Vant, or Anthony will say no to being his family once the coast is clear."

"So what can you tell us about the situation and what Hojo did?" Tseng asked.

The black haired woman moved over to sit across from the Wutain, settling the baby in her lap as she said, "Well, let's just start with Hojo throwing a tantrum when the power began going out." She explained what had taken place in the President's office, right up to Shelke's arrival, Sephiroth sprouting a black wing, and Chaos defeating Jenova. After that, she went on with what they had found in his notes. "Hojo had basically pumped all of his remaining raw Jenova cells into his body before they could be used to make more SOLDIER infusions since all the pre-made infusions had been taken from him. He then mostly used the Jenova cells from his body to enhance the monsters, and to experiment with a new cloning effect."

"A new cloning effect?" the two Turks blinked.

"Exactly," she agreed. "It causes growth from inception to adulthood in about seven hours. At least, physically it does. In a monster, that doesn't mean anything beyond them being more irritable, but for a human or humanoid, like this little one or the Makonoids, it affects their sanity and mental state because they 'grew up' too fast and their minds couldn't keep up with it. They also still have the genetic damage caused by cloning which causes the body to age and die faster. So basically, Hojo fertilized a bunch of monster eggs, cloned them with this method, and put the result in the crates he left around the city, where they laid dormant until the process completed—only his original experimental subjects, like the two Behemoths, had actually been tranquilized."

"Did he happen to say why he killed everyone on those floors, why he endangered the city this way?" Tseng asked.

"He was angry because the people he felt he owned weren't cooperating with him, and he didn't want anyone to be able to stop them—Jenova's influence was behind that, because monsters like those could have easily razed the world if we hadn't had clever Vant to get the data on their weakness. Hojo didn't care about the world's fate, though, that much is obvious. Jenova was also directing so many monster attacks leading up to this incident, specifically because she wanted us tired and unable to keep fighting them. She'd have gotten her wish with this, and Hojo wanted to know if his theories were right, and if he got to find out the truth behind Chaos and Omega Theory in the process, he was fine with that, too," Lunaria explained.

"Well, that's quite an extreme reaction to not getting a few test subjects," Kariya commented as Tseng pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.

"Hojo has never played well with others," Lunaria replied, sounding amused.

"Well, that answered most of what I need for the preliminary reports," the Wutain sighed. "Did he happen to leave a list of their locations and numbers?"

"He did. I can forward it to you. How much will you put in your report?" the woman asked.

"If what you said is true, Shinra saw Vant become Chaos, so likely knows Vant is Vincent Valentine," Tseng said. "I'll need to ask him. We may not be able to hide Shelke's—and Shalua and Genesis'—status as a Cetra, either, after that. With the known ties between you and Vant, the President may demand to know exactly who you are, and I don't think that could be hidden with Blythe and Kedran's knowledge of both yours and the baby's—Sephiroth's—genetics. If that would actually be detrimental to any of us, I don't know, but Shelke and Genesis are still the ones in the most danger of being harmed. We'll have to work out the details once President Shinra indicates to me how much he knows. In the meantime, thank you for your help, and I really _do_ have a lot of other work to do for the end of the day."

With a nod, Lunaria rose. "I won't keep you, then. Let me know what to expect as you find out what you need to know."

"I will, thanks," the Wutain agreed absently as he began working on the paperwork in front of him. She left with the baby as he looked back up at Kariya. "With that answered—mostly—could I ask you instead to search Heidegger's home and office for anything which may explain his sudden insanity yesterday?"

"Will do, then. Call me if you need anything," the older man agreed, and turned to go.

"And Kariya," Tseng added, making the man pause. "Find time to visit your daughters. Hopefully today."

"...I will," Kariya agreed with a faint smile, then left.

It was bound to be a long few days.

 **Notes:**

(1) Logically, Qliphoth could have become the 'Nightmare' Sephiroth if he wasn't stopped, because while Sephiroth had rejected Jenova, Qliphoth hadn't. This incident would have been enough to push the clone over the edge, also because he was grown far to rapidly for him to have his full mental capacities—he only barely had a brain advanced enough to grasp language and copy the things he was being shown, not to think independently. For Minerva to stop that outcome and finally break the ties Jenova had to the world, she needed to fix Qliphoth, or the results later would have been easily as bad as anything Sephiroth did in the original timeline.


	30. 28-Aftermath

**A/N:** This should be the last person being renamed, and her name's going to stay as the renamed one, so you may want to remember it when she's mentioned.

Aftermath

At suppertime the day before, Aeris had been in tears when she'd joined the rest of the group of travelers for the meal, saying she had felt a large number of deaths—including her mother's—leaving the others horrified. To distract them, Eden had told them he'd looked again at the recording Libby had made of the Temple and had realized they needed to slot a special stone (or Materia?) into the indent in the altar to make the door open, so they'd have to find the stone to get inside. They had turned their attention to trying to work out where they would start looking for said stone.

By morning, however, they hadn't heard from anyone in Midgar, so they had decided not to rush to find out what was wrong there. After all, that would just jam up phone lines for the people in the city, and it was highly likely they were already taxed to the limit. Instead, they borrowed Chocobos from a small farmer on the outskirts of Banora and used them to cross to the Materia Mine on the northern tip of the island, which required crossing some strands of underwater dunes barely visible at the water's surface. (1) On the way, they passed a burnt out, ruined, crater-filled hole which Genesis told the others had been a rather insular village even Banora, their nearest neighbors, knew next to nothing about.

At the Materia Mine, they found the same trend of a fairly small, empty cave as they had found at every other one, though the one they were at glowed with a faintly blue light and they found a Support called Quadra Magic, which caused the linked Materia to automatically hit four times in a row. Genesis was ecstatic by the find, so Eden let him take it.

On the Chocobos, they were able to return to Banora by nightfall, where they rested for the night, then took to the airship again to head to their next northern stop—Goblin Island. The largest island in the small chain almost directly north of Banora and past the Chocobo Farm on the continent was properly named Goblin Island, though all the islands in the area were inhabited by them. Normally, Goblins were fairly easy to deal with, and they'd be able to get the Enemy Skill Goblin Punch from them, hence the reason they stopped there. However, the Goblins were somehow able to sneak up on them, even the Turks, and get surprise attacks, leading them all to wonder how.

Finally, Cissnei commented that it was like they had a Stealth Materia (2), causing Genesis to smirk and tell her she was a genius. Moments later, he had taken to the air and vanished over the plains and trees—and returned after about half an hour with a purple orb glowing in his hand. When he landed, he held it out triumphantly as he declared, "One Stealth Materia requisitioned from the Goblin King himself!" He then tossed it to Eden as everyone stared at him in stunned amazement.

They returned to the airship soon after and headed further north from there, to what everyone could see was Round Island. They reached it around dawn the morning after leaving Goblin Island, not because the flight took any amount of time normally (it only took about four hours), but because the Highwind had to fight high winds and heavy storm conditions the whole time.

Round Island—was a dormant volcano. It was obvious by its circular form with the raised ridge all the way around its outer edge.

The crater had filled with dense underbrush and the ridge was far too narrow for the Highwind to land, so they once again had to resort to asking a Summon for help. Oddly enough, Eden thought of Leviathan, who was long and narrow, and would likely appreciate exploring the ocean after they finished at the island. Since Leviathan agreed, they used him to travel down the steep cliff to the forest's edge. Finding the cave they were looking for, or a random Materia shard laying around, was like finding a needle in a haystack, so Eden went back to Leviathan to tell him to explore for a few hours and return there when he was bored.

By the time they found the cave to the northeast side of the island, it was nearly dark and Leviathan had returned at least two hours before. What they had found in that faintly red glowing Materia Mine, however, had been a Summon known as Knights of the Round—arguably the single most powerful Summon Minerva had created besides the Weapon Materia. After they had returned to the airship, Aeris informed them that Knights of the Round had been formed within a few generations of the star-travelers' arrival by the thirteen Knights who had forced Jenova's monsters into retreat in their age. Minerva produced it only sparingly, however.

It was then, while they were on their way back to Fort Condor to search for the Keystone for the Temple of the Ancients, that the airship got a call from Midgar.

When the group gathered to take the call in the room where there was a video conference call screen, it was at the President's request that they were all there. While Aeris was being disguised as a blond again, Nanaki and Deneh only sat outside the door to wait for them, as the President wasn't aware of them. On the call screen were the President, Tseng, Lazard, and Biggs and Shelke, all dressed formally and in a room none of the ones on the Highwind recognized, though Cissnei said softly, "It looks like one of the rooms on floor thirteen, where they have general rooms for business meetings." Tseng, Lazard, Biggs, and Shelke all looked tired.

"Is that everyone now?" the President asked as he looked over at Tseng.

"It seems to be," the Wutain agreed.

"Can we get on with whatever you called us about, Father?" Rufus asked irritably.

"You watch your mouth," the President glared at him. "But yes, we should get on with it, given how overloaded with work we are right now. Well, a few days ago, Midgar was assaulted by monsters which were—oddly durable. Apparently, Hojo had been behind the plot in order to find an excuse to kidnap experimental subjects he hadn't been given permission to take. The city is in shambles and we've lost another forty (3) percent of our population, along with many employees from the executive level down. We're already running into hundreds of billions of gil in clean-up and repairs, and I can safely say that the monsters did much more damage to the city than the Wutain Invaders, even though they killed marginally fewer people. No one is unaccounted for—they're either notably registered as dead or are alive and recovering."

The large man rose and said, "Now, since I still have stacks of paperwork to do, I'll leave these three to give you further details. Oh, and because of the mess here, you'll be stopping in Junon before you start your last leg of the journey, not returning here as I had originally intended." He then turned and left the room, Lazard and Biggs glaring at him as he left, Shelke just sighing tiredly, and Tseng closing his eyes for a moment.

"So...A monster attack?" Rufus asked once there had been a notable sound of a door closing. "And why is a—ten-year-old there with you for this?"

"Shelke is here because Reeve is still in Gongaga, Jessie is dead, and Shalua is in the hospital missing an arm," Tseng answered, pain creasing his face for a moment. The others in the room felt off-kilter as soon as they heard the reply, and anyone who hadn't been sitting did so quite quickly.

"As for the attack," Lazard began acidly. "Let's just say Hojo managed to drop easily as many monsters on us all at once as you'd typically find in the Northern Crater over several days." Everyone's eyes widened. "Those monsters followed the traits noted in the Turk report of the very hard-to-kill monster, meaning each and every one of them had to be killed several times at the very least before it would die, even for Sephiroth. As it turned out, we had to resort to a complete power outage to kill them quickly and make them stay dead. Jessie had to go to Reactor Zero to shut it down as well, but they apparently met an Ifrit there, and it killed her when it realized she was cutting off its power supply."

"Who's 'they'?" Ruluf asked tensely. "Jessie wasn't alone, right?"

Tseng told them, "Sora was with her, but with the Ifrit also being one of those modified monsters, it didn't go down easily and there was nothing she could do. But what we need to report on is more complicated than that. This became a bigger mess than a monster attack, and we lost Palmer, Heidegger, and Hojo. We also lost several of the SOLDIERs—" His gaze moved to Genesis, Luxiere, and Kunzel. "—including Sebastian—" All three SOLDIERs drew in sharp breaths as their gazes became pained. "—and two of the Turks, Alvis and Maur." The Wutain's gaze was on Freyra, Cissnei, Ruluf, and Eden as he said that part. All four pairs of eyes widened as Cissnei's hand covered her mouth and Freyra's lips pressed into a fine line.

He paused, then went on, "I've hired Elena as a Turk as of yesterday, and gave her the name Riona. She was the one who got the Academy's combat students to start fighting back with some sort of organization rather than giving in to fear in the attack." Tseng's gaze turned to Aeris as he said, "Your mother also died in the attack, and I have something of hers for you which Felicia delivered to me two days ago." She nodded with tears in her eyes, so his gaze returned to Genesis. "We'll forward you a list of the SOLDIERs in your unit who died during the attack, but you can request the full list from Sephiroth later." At the man's nod, he drew in a deep breath and released it as a tired sigh.

"It gets worse," Tseng added. "The Science Department is running on a skeleton crew right now—the only ones who survived are those working under Doctors Blythe and Kedran. Several other departments are in a similar state. Many Academy students are also dead, but they fared better over-all, and any of your friends there—besides Shalua—are unharmed. Doctor Blythe is now in charge of the Science Department, Shelke has temporarily taken over in Space, and until Reeve gets back, Biggs is in charge in Urban Development, as much as he _can_ be."

"So...is there any _good_ news?" Rufus asked with a faint glare.

With a sigh, Tseng gave his head a shake. "Not in particular. Well, I suppose the one benefit to the situation is that the President has started hiring all comers to take positions in Shinra as long as a cursory check shows no criminal record—that means a lot more people from the Slums are now employed. We had our own problems with Behemoths and Makonoids up here. The hospitals nearly all crashed and we lost about half our medical staff, so Turks and SOLDIERs reasonably proficient with restorative Materia have been sent out to help heal the injured."

"Could we back up and address the issues with Palmer's, Heidegger's, and Hojo's deaths?" the President's son asked, frowning deeply in confusion. "I realize Hojo may have been—killed by the Turks to halt the attack, but—"

"He wasn't," Lazard said, then sighed and pushed his glasses up. "Well, he _was_ killed by Vant, but not 'to stop the attacks'. He threw a fit in the President's office when the Reactors shut down, and it turned out he'd made a clone of Sephiroth using the same technique he'd used on the monsters. Sephiroth now has a wing, the Science Department now has a four-month-old baby version of Sephiroth, and with Hollander and Hojo both dead, no one's quite sure what to make of the remains of the Jenova Project. The President also watched Vant become Chaos to defeat Hojo, who had transformed into a Jenova hybrid, and Shinra was rather—put out by Hojo trying to kill _him_ as well as everyone else."

"The President knows about Chaos?" Eden blinked, gaze turning dazed as he realized just how screwed they could be with just that alone.

"Chaos, who chose to protect him," Tseng answered. "I think the Turks are some of the few people he still trusts, and has no intention of doing anything about Chaos' presence. 'The monster' protected him from Hojo, so that was good enough. He also realized that if Vant was Chaos—or Vincent Valentine—then Lunaria was most likely Lucrecia Crescent, which also made Sephiroth, and his clone by default, her children genetically, so she's unofficially been given responsibility for them. With the inclusion of Anthony, who he suspects may be Weiss after seeing him interact with Sora and Shelke, I think he firmly believes the Turks are trying to gather the strongest and sanest people we can find to his side. He's not planning to interfere with that at this point."

"That's one good thing," Rufus pointed out. "How did Hollander die if he had no part in Hojo's plot?"

"Hojo set up the monsters to slaughter everyone they could reach in the Science Department, which ended up being about eighty percent of it. Hollander, who had apparently been infused with Jenova's cells as well, had been one of those," Lazard replied. "All of the Turks and SOLDIERs now report to either Doctor Blythe or Doctor Kedran, along with anyone else they've requested to have moved to their care."

"So how did Palmer and Heidegger end up dead? Not from trying to protect people, surely?" the President's son asked derisively.

"No," Tseng agreed. "Palmer was mauled by the monsters and beyond help without medical care—and it was going to take far too long to get that care. The number of people I had to kill because they were beyond saving—let's just say I'd rather not do it again any time soon. Heidegger...tried to kill the President, Sora, and me."

"...Excuse me?" Rufus and Genesis both asked as the others traded shocked looks.

Rubbing his eyes again, the Wutain Turk answered, "Apparently, he was so upset about the agreement the President made with Emperor Godo that he took to excessive drinking—not really unusual for him—and mind-altering drug use—not normal for him. The drug he was using appears to be Mako-enhanced morphine, something the people in the Slums call 'blue sparks' (4). Morphine is a painkiller, but it's also strongly hallucinogenic, and when combined with Mako _and_ alcohol, it warped his mind enough to—snap. Who knows if he would have gone back to normal after the blue sparks had worn off, but it didn't change the immediate reality of the fact that he blew a hole in Sora's back and nearly did the same to the President's head."

"And...who has taken over for all these people who have died?" Rufus asked, gaze on Tseng still.

"They said what Biggs and I were doing," Shelke said. "Reeve should be back tomorrow morning, so Biggs will be done then. I'll temporarily keep things running in the Space Department until a—guy named Cid Highwind gets back to take over?"

"Cid's our pilot," Genesis blinked in surprise.

"But they said he's the best option for both the aeronautics and space engineering the department requires," the girl said with a small shrug. "So, I'm just keeping things running until he gets back—I'm not even supposed to join his department once he's here."

"Rather than that, Tseng, you should get some people out to Rocket Town to pick up Shera Labradia," Rufus said. "She's Cid's assistant and should be about as capable as him—she's also readily available to take over as his second and is better suited to the position than the child. Also, I rather think Cid won't agree if you don't already have Shera on board, and you'll end up needing her to get his agreement for you."

"...I see," Tseng sighed. "I'll make arrangements for someone to go see her, then. Thank you for the heads-up, since that will definitely make things easier."

Rufus nodded, then asked, "So, who's filled the other executive roles needing a person to fill?"

"I've taken Heidegger's place—and started training with the Turks to use some weapons reasonably well," Lazard offered. "They ended up getting Sephiroth to temporarily take my former role while they try to find someone suitable for it. After all, he told us bluntly that he's not going to keep it because he already has to do enough paperwork—he'd never get out onto the field if he had to become the Director. The only problem is...None of us have had any time to stop and mourn, or even slow down."

"What about the monster attacks we'd been dealing with before the attack on Midgar?" Genesis asked suddenly, voice oddly low.

"Those have mostly stopped since then," Lazard told him. "Thank Bahamut for small mercies. Once the President releases us from this workload, all of us are taking a holiday. Zack seems to be the only one unaffected in SOLDIER, and after this attack, he came to me and volunteered to take over for a week while everyone else just—crashed. In exchange, he said he gets to go with you lot to the Northern Crater, mostly for the challenge. Hopefully, this is the last day we need to work _this_ intensively."

"Even if it's not, I'm going to call my father and demand he let all of you rest and mourn, because anyone with eyes can tell all of you, Tseng especially, are about to collapse in exhaustion," Rufus replied, his gaze moving across the three of them. "How many did Gaia's Refuge lose?"

"A little less than ten percent of their people," Tseng answered with a ghost of a smile which came out more like a grimace. "Them having held down the fort in the Slums with so few deaths was nothing short of a miracle, given what they were dealing with."

"What _were_ they dealing with?" Aeris asked softly, gaze pained.

The Wutain man sighed heavily. "While the Upper Plate had two Behemoths in their arsenal, the Slum Sectors had several dozen Abyss Worms and Death Claws. Each." Everyone's eyes widened in horror. "The Shinra building had to deal with—I think it ended up being ten Makonoids, an Ifrit, and Sephiroth's clone. Other monsters included Destroyers, Funny Faces, Guard Hounds, Epiolnises, Sahagins, and the more difficult to handle Evil Eyes and Evilgoyles. We'll never be able to get anything like a complete or accurate accounting of those, but if Hojo's records are to be believed, he created approximately twenty-five hundred in total, all inclusive."

That caused several sharp intakes of breath and shocked gasps. Then Rufus gave a growl and glower and said, "Excuse me while I call my father and tell him you _are_ taking a break. All of the combat personnel. I'd say Shelke and Biggs as well, but until Reeve gets back, there's no one else to take the role, even for a day." Rufus then rose and left the room.

With a sigh, Genesis also rose, but Lazard said, "Genesis, please give Sephiroth a call. I think he'd appreciate that." Genesis gave a wave of agreement as he left the room, and Luxiere and Kunzel quickly followed him out. Lazard looked at Tseng and asked, "Shall I take over the allocation for awhile?"

"Please," the younger man agreed. "But don't over-do it. You're still recovering from your session with Reno earlier."

"I'll live," Lazard responded. "Come, Shelke, Biggs. We took you away from your work for this meeting, so I'll escort you back."

"Thanks..." Shelke agreed as she and Biggs followed him out.

"...What did my mom leave behind? Besides our home, maybe?" Aeris asked quietly, tears in her eyes as she gazed at Tseng.

"Her ring. Yes, the home is still there and mostly the way you left it. With your mother dead and you away, Felicia appropriated it as a shelter and hospital for people in the area. They've been asked not to touch or damage anything but the food."

Aeris nodded absently and walked out of the room—only to collapse in the hall with her arms around Nanaki as she shivered and wept on him. Deneh moved up to lean against her back as they waited for her to calm down.

Back in the room, it was Eden, Freyra, Ruluf, and Cissnei who were left, and it was Cissnei who asked softly, "How...How did Maur and Alvis die?"

"Honorably," Tseng answered, then explained to them what had happened to the two men. Eden just pressed his fingers to his eyes sadly as he really hadn't known either man very well, but Ruluf, Freyra, and Cissnei were deeply affected by their deaths. Cissnei especially, and she turned to the first person she could reach to cry on their shoulder—which ended up being Eden. He just held her and let her cry, and Freyra left the room while wiping tears away.

"Thank you," Ruluf said to Tseng, who gave a small nod, his eyes moist with un-shed tears. Ruluf was gazing absently off into the distance, but when a tear ran down his cheek, he sighed and said, "We should have been there to help you..."

"I'm glad you weren't," Tseng answered. "You were the ones we were guaranteed were safe, and that meant a lot more than I realized at the time. If Rufus manages to come through for us, we'll be okay, but that's assuming the President is willing to listen to him. Right now, we have no guarantee of that. I only really have Vant fit to work, just like Lazard really only has Zack, and to some degree, Sephiroth. Everyone else needs a rest. We were already worn out and running on fumes."

Ruluf sighed, then gave a small nod. "Good luck, then. We'll keep on our planned path here." Tseng nodded and ended the video call, but no one at the table moved.

In Eden's case, he didn't move because he was still taking care of Cissnei and crying a bit (the black haired Turk was surprised to see that). The red haired Turk didn't move because she was still crying openly, and Ruluf didn't because he just wanted to sit there and cry silently into his hand for awhile before he tried to move.

After awhile, Cissnei and Ruluf had stopped crying, so Eden commented quietly, "Tseng was about to break."

"What?" Ruluf asked softly. "Oh, you mean because of everything he has to try to hold together, on top of the deaths we all now have to deal with?"

"That. And Shalua's arm, and Jessie's death, and Aeris' mother's death—Ruluf, he's practically carrying the world on his shoulders by being the Director of the Turks," Eden sighed. "If he's actually trying to do it all alone out there..."

"He's not. Reno won't let him do that. Not even if it was Alvis who died," Cissnei put in tiredly. "I don't actually think Kariya will, either, after I heard him call Tseng 'Baby Turk' so fondly not long before we left on this trip."

"...Why Alvis in particular?" the blond asked in quiet confusion.

Both Turks gave small, sad smiles as Ruluf explained, "Reno's the one who mostly trained Alvis after he was pulled off the streets for trying to steal Shinra's Materia. They were like brothers, and Reno was really protective of Alvis. But he cares about Tseng, too, and Cissnei's right...I can't see Reno—or any of the Turks, really—just ditching Tseng when he's suffering from the same losses _we_ are. And more of them."

After a silence, Eden said, "They'll be okay. They have to, because _we need them_ , too." Ruluf gave an agreeing noise as Cissnei nodded against his shoulder.

FoW

That evening, the group of travelers rested at the Inn in Fort Condor, then began the search for the stone they needed for the Temple the next morning. Some of their number worked extra hard (like Cissnei) to take their minds off the news they had gotten from Midgar, while others dragged their feet, unable to muster the enthusiasm for the search. Eden was just as tired as usual, but kept up his own work when he wasn't collapsing in sleep. One point of interest which perked up both himself and Genesis was when Reeve forwarded them copies of the research notes on the Materia-to-Lifestream project's progress through Libby. It seemed they were working with some solid theory so far, at least, but they hadn't quite succeeded yet.

It was a lot of work to question so many people about something so ambiguous as a random stone, but the world wasn't majorly populated and each area really only had certain people they needed to talk with who might potentially know something. It was into the third week that they were searching, when they had moved on to Costa del Sol (Eden and Genesis managed to stop in at the Shinra Lab there to ask them about the Materia-to-Lifestream project), when they finally got a clue. Of course, the 'clue' was someone saying 'Dio at the casino in town had picked up a strange stone, or Materia, or something, on his travels, so maybe he could help them?'

 **Notes:**

(1) This bit of a land bridge of sand dunes isn't there in 0007 when the main game takes place, because the waves have been systematically washing them away, and as it is, they were only barely able to use them at this point. Depending on the ocean terrain, dunes can form as well as wash away, and in many areas (assuming they aren't being disturbed by man-made machines), they run in cycles across segments of the ocean. In areas with 'anchor points' for the sand to form dunes, those dunes can and do reach the surface and people can walk on them. These dunes would run on a 15-20 year cycle, and are currently nearing the end of one before they can start their formation again.

(2) Stealth is the name I gave Pre-Emptive, and it doesn't just allow you to surprise your enemy, it literally lets you walk around (carefully, though!) without being seen. This was a more realistic functionality to me than how battle functions in the game, which is also part of the reason for the name change. It differs from the Invis spell in two ways—it doesn't have an actual time limit, and you can't be careless and just run across open ground without being seen. Invis will only last about 2 minutes, but it WILL keep you from being seen during that time, regardless of how you move or where you go. That's why the Wutains were using Invis (Mirage Materia), not Stealth, during the Wutain Invasion.

(3) To clear up this percentage...Midgar is a metropolis, much like on our world, meaning it has a general population between 30-40 MILLION people. It's also the only one on Gaia, and comprises about half (or more) of the world's total population. Back in Catalyst Array, during the Wutain Invasion, it had been closer to 40 million, but they lost 30% of that 40 million, putting them down to less than 30 million. This estimate of 40% population loss is being subtracted from 30 million-ish, not 40 million-ish, meaning they're down to around 17-18 million people in a metropolis meant to hold twice that.

The major causes? First, Wall Market was next to defenseless, and the majority of the population in the Slums is there, especially during the day; second, the Shinra building itself was under assault by something they couldn't just kill; and third—even though Zack's Behemoth didn't get to kill many civilians, Kariya's had barreled through several buildings...How many people do you think it would have killed in the process, when the Upper Plate is obviously arranged with most of the shops near the core pillar—the same zone the Behemoth plowed through? It also didn't help that most of the Infantry fled rather than doing the jobs they signed up for, mainly leaving the city's monster extermination in the hands of half a dozen Turks, half of SOLDIER, Gaia's Refuge, and assorted random criminals and mercenaries, all of those last two unevenly spread and with fewer numbers than either Gaia's Refuge or the available SOLDIERs.

(4) In case anyone needs this pointed out, I completely made up 'blue sparks', because even though FFVII acknowledged druggies, and Mako drugs, they never gave them names or anything about their composition and effects.


	31. 29-'Pyre-Snow'

'Pyre-Snow'

When the group in Costa del Sol checked with Dio, he showed them the 'strange stone' and told them he had found it on the ground around the Temple of the Ancients. They asked what he'd trade for it—and he said rather than 'trading' for it, he wanted to go with them to the Temple, in the hopes of finding some sort of treasure there which would help him set up his dream amusement park out in the Corel Desert. They agreed to let him take most of any treasure they found there, but they would definitely get the Materia and reserved the right to pick a few other items if they found any. However, they also warned him they likely wouldn't find much there.

Since he was fine with that, they headed for the Temple, and sure enough, Dio's stone opened the entrance for them—and Cid surprised them by saying he was going along with them into the Temple this time. He 'wanted an adventure for once, dang nab it!' Dio and Cid both noticed how the group seemed disturbed by something, but said nothing as they scoured the Temple (which was a collection of puzzles itself), something they broke into groups to do faster. There wasn't a lot to find, but Dio picked up a few items, and surprisingly, a Cetra spirit had manifested enough to have items for them as well. They also found a Luck Plus and a Morph Materia before meeting back in the mural room, where the final puzzle they had to solve was.

"So...What now?" Kunzel asked tightly. "I mean—we know what's going to happen, so...who are we going to sacrifice?"

"Say what?" Dio asked with a thunderous frown.

"We were told solving the puzzle to acquire the Materia here will destroy the person who solves it," Genesis sighed.

"It isn't something I could order one of you to do," Rufus said. "We may just have to leave it as is for now."

"I'm not 'a person', so I could do it," Libby offered from Eden's shoulder.

"So could I," Stray Hope and Cait Sith both added, then looked at one another in something like surprise.

Cid and Dio traded puzzled looks, but then it was Carbuncle who said, " _I'll do it. I'm a spirit anyway, so I can't really be killed—I'll just go back to spirit form and you'll be able to summon me again after a recovery time. Nothing will change, and you won't lose someone—because Libby, Stray Hope, and Cait Sith all have personalities of their own—that way._ " It hopped up to where the puzzle sat to begin working on it.

Several of the others looked surprised before Rufus asked the Summon, "Are you absolutely certain you wish to make this sacrifice, Carbuncle?"

" _Yup. It won't even hurt because I'm a spirit. I'll see everyone again as soon as I'm recovered, and you should all leave now_ ," Carbuncle replied.

There was a rumble from around them, causing Luxiere to hiss, "Shit!"

"Out, now!" Rufus ordered, turning to run for the exit. The others quickly followed him, realizing there wasn't going to be any discussion or debate now that the Summon had already begun working on the puzzle.

Thankfully, it was a reasonably short trip out, and they kept running until they had crossed the bridge, taking a quick head count as the sound of falling rock came from the Temple. Dust rose, but they could only stare in shock as the Temple began shrinking—quickly. Eden carefully began walking back across the bridge while the dust was settling, stopping at the edge of a massive hole. It didn't take long for the dust to settle or for the others to join him to stare into the huge, square-shaped crater which now filled the space where the Temple had once sat.

After a moment, Eden found a path down into the crater, Libby with him still, and began searching around for something with her help. It didn't take them long to find a pure black shard of Materia on the ground in the middle of the crater, so Eden picked it up—and flinched at the terms of Meteor. No wonder Minerva had said she shouldn't have created it.

"...What now?" Genesis asked from beside him.

Breathing out a deep gust of air, the blond Turk answered, "I use this to test the array destroying method to return a Materia to the Lifestream, like Minerva asked."

Genesis thought for a moment, then faced the rest of the group to say, "You should head back towards the Highwind while we work this out—it'll be dangerous, possibly fatal, if you stay and we make a mistake. We'll join you in the evening." He then looked at Libby and added, "You, too."

"Here, then," Freyra said as she grabbed Libby off Eden's shoulder and turned to head for the cliff. She called back, "You two had better not get yourselves killed, though!" The others added agreement to the sentiment as they began following her.

"Take this, too, just in case," Aeris told Eden softly as she slipped another Materia into his free hand—it called itself White, the holy magic which could also destroy the world.

"Why do you—?" he asked in surprise as he looked up at her.

She gave him a hug and whispered, "It was my birth mother's before it was mine. If you can really destroy Black, now is a good time to also destroy White so they'll both no longer be dangers to anyone, right?"

"Aeris, come _on_!" Cissnei shouted at her.

"Coming!" Aeris called as she let go of Eden and quickly ran to catch up with the others.

Eden and Genesis stood silently while they waited for the others to leave as they stared down at the white and black shards of Materia in Eden's hands. "So," Genesis began once the others had reached the top of the crater cliff. "We have _both_ Materia Minerva wants destroyed, and we just have to figure out how. We know we can manipulate the arrays, but those are in minor ways and tend to reverse the changes made on their own, rather quickly. How could we permanently delete part of them? Ideas?"

The blond looked up at him for a moment, then asked dryly, "You do realize you could get yourself killed by staying here, right?"

The older man gave him a wry smile and replied, "Pot, kettle, black." Eden blushed as he realized anything currently true of Genesis was also true of _him_. "So, your thoughts on the question at hand?"

With a small sigh, the younger of the two said, "We have to figure out which part of the array is holding the Materia shards together in the _first_ place, because just erasing part of the circle wouldn't do anything besides make it inactive. That isn't to say someone strong-willed or smart enough couldn't still fill in those parts and force it to activate, it just means the energy would stop flowing until that happened. We have to erase what's holding it together, not leave it intact, inactive or not."

"Hmm...what's holding...it together..." Genesis murmured. "So if we go back to basic Materia arrays, that would probably be one which is virtually identical in every Materia shard in order to give it form. Maybe one or all of those three in the five shards of Zirconaide?"

"...That's possible," Eden admitted, then picked a spot on the ragged ground to sit so he was reasonably comfortable. He exchanged both Black and White with two of the Materia on his wrist bracer, sticking the other two in his pocket as he began examining the arrays of the two new and singular Materia. "They're both automatically Mastered," he said. "They're also far stronger than Knights of the Round—more like I imagine Minerva or Jenova would be in their prime. Similar, then, to Chaos or Zirconaide, but with no restriction or stop button."

"That's...And Minerva indicated those were meant to destroy the world, so that meant they were sort of a self-destruct button. I wonder what changed her mind," Genesis commented, gazing absently off into the distance.

"I could hazard a guess and say it's because she has another path now, and hope for the future, whether here or on another world," Eden replied as he stared up at the blue sky above them. The sun shining on them was pleasantly warm, but he felt cold and more tired than he had before they'd left the Temple.

"...True. Mind if I have a look at them?" the red haired man asked. The blond willingly removed them from his bracer and offered them to him, so Genesis also put them in his Wizard Bracelet by removing and pocketing two of his usual Materia. He also found a place to sit while he looked at their arrays, then said, "Definitely Mastered, and definitely with those three arrays, but they look rather—different from the ones we're used to seeing. Then again, these two are unique unto themselves, and Zirconaide only has familiar arrays because of its current state. At the same time, I hesitate to try destroying those."

"I get that same feeling, like it's just too dangerous to try erasing them," Eden agreed. "On the other hand, returning these two to her will return _a lot_ of energy to her, even taking into account her 'size' compared to ours. I mean, each of them is probably close to five percent of her total current energy, while any other Materia shard would be a fraction of a percent. There has to be something more specific which would be able to break them down—I don't think it's a whole array, only a part of one."

"A part of one?" Genesis blinked at him in surprise.

"Yeah...Not the lines setting the mathematical and scientific equations, but the marks running alongside those, the ones which are the 'language' we modify to change their effects or determine what it is and does," the Turk explained. "The problem is, even though I know some of it, I'm guessing the marks are the Cetra language, and I don't think even Aeris knows it well."

"Cetra language...then, the original language of this world?" the red haired man asked with a thoughtful frown.

"I would guess so, unless there was a language Minerva used which predates that," Eden sighed.

The SOLDIER was quiet for a minute before saying, "This might be a long shot, but our Summons might know. As much as I love mine, they're all quite large, and we don't actually _want_ to attract the rest of our group back. Could you summon a few of your smaller-sized ones so we can talk with them?"

With a blink, the blond asked, "How would I know which ones are 'smaller-sized' when the only ones I've summoned are large except for Carbuncle? And Odin, I guess."

"Let's just start with Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, and Titan being only marginally larger than a normal human. Also, Choco-Mog is, but that one is pretty obnoxious from what I've heard. We don't know about Sylph, but it's got three of them, so each is probably fairly small. That should cover all the ones you have equipped. If you wanted to fish out Knights of the Round—they're all basically the size of the average man, give or take a bit, but based on their origins, I don't think they would know, because they didn't start here. Atomos—I don't think we want to play with that one right now. Just a feeling," Genesis replied in amusement.

"...So I should summon the four elemental Summons, Odin, and Sylph?" Eden asked curiously.

"Yup," the older man agreed. "Or pass a couple of them to me so I can summon them for you, since you're so tired lately."

"...It's not that my energy is depleted at all—it's not," the Turk replied dryly. "They aren't really all that taxing to summon, not even Odin, and he's the one with the highest summoning cost of them." He shrugged, then held his hand forward and called, from highest cost to lowest and with a pause between each Summon, "Come out and help us solve a dilemma, Odin! Titan! Ramuh! Sylph! Ifrit! Shiva!"

One by one, the six beings appeared to the two men. Odin, in black armor and on his white, six-legged horse, was the only one of this group Eden had seen before. Titan was apparently a dark-skinned man with bulk and muscle and very little of a covering, and Ramuh was an aged man in a robe who had long hair and a long beard with a wooden (he thought it was oak) staff in one hand. Sylph was three two-foot-tall beings with a human shape, butterfly wings, green dresses, and long, white hair who reminded him of cheerful, young girls. Ifrit, who was female, was lithe with some built muscle, horns, fangs, claws, red-hued yellow skin, and red-furred legs with hooves. She wore something resembling a tank top in red and her deep red hair was long and flaring around her. Shiva was a regal, blue-skinned woman with darker blue hair tied in a long, high ponytail who wore something like a kind of bikini in violet.

Genesis gave an impressed whistle—and a laugh as a wickedly grinning Ifrit teased Shiva by tickling her side with faintly flaming fingertips, only to find her hand frozen and Shiva glaring at her. The other Summons sighed, except for Sylph, all three of whom giggled at the pair.

" _What did you need of us, Ancient Sentinel_?" Ramuh asked.

At the words, Ifrit let her hand flare with fire, breaking the ice around it, then turned her attention to the two men.

The two explained the problem with what they needed to find out, and Eden finished with, "As much as I know quite a bit of the language from my past work with the arrays, Materia use a number of terms and words I'm not familiar with, so we were hoping you would know those parts of the language."

Several of them traded looks before Odin said, " _The language was called 'Eidolish' after our original name, Eidolons, or guardian spirits. Minerva gave the Cetra the same language so we and they could communicate without her interference._ (1) _What you are attempting is obscure language, even to us._ "

"Obscure?" Genesis blinked, then he and the Turk traded looks. "Does that mean you don't know?"

Sylph began drawing on the ground, the three of them clustered around the spot where they were drawing, as Ifrit said, " _We would be more familiar with some aspects of what the Materia arrays are in active form and use, and the language which represents that, not the language which allows Materia to retain its form._ "

" _An unfortunate truth. Destruction of Materia was previously unnecessary, so were lessons which would have had no purpose or use,_ " Shiva added.

"You couldn't have learned it just to learn it?" Eden asked curiously.

" _Perhaps we could have,_ " Shiva began.

" _We simply felt our time was best spent elsewhere,_ " Titan finished. " _We were not prevented from learning it, but as you have found, language imprinting does not imprint obscure language, leaving those aspects to be taught and learned through one's own work. Perhaps some of the most aged of our kind would know, would have taken the time to learn those things._ "

"Aged Summons—Eidolons, sorry—would possibly have the knowledge, yet Ramuh doesn't?" the SOLDIER asked, blinking at the aged-looking Summon.

Several of the others snorted as Ramuh glared and replied, " _I may be more aged than Shiva, Ifrit, and Titan—these three here, at least—but I am barely aged compared to Odin or several others I am aware of, including Knights of the Round. That particular one you now carry has been the same for a thousand years, and I have only a hundred of life. All of my kind happen to resemble an aged human, withered and bark-like._ "

Genesis and Eden traded surprised looks before the red haired man asked, "Why is that?"

"Is it because oak is associated traditionally with lightning?" Eden asked suddenly, having remembered some of his work with the arrays and notes in his father's books.

Ramuh and Odin both nodded as Ramuh agreed, " _Such is the case._ "

" _As such, appearance is not a means to judge the actual age of one of our kind,_ " Odin added.

" _Here, here! Look at these!_ " the three Sylph fairies called suddenly, hovering above the ground where they had been drawing, fingers pointing down at the ground. The two men traded confused looks as the other Eidolons eyed the marks in mixed confusion and dawning realization, but the humans both got up and moved over to look at what the three had drawn.

What they were looking at was a series of 'letters', likely 'words', from the same language used on the arrays, but nearly all of them unfamiliar.

"So what are they, exactly?" Eden asked the three.

" _Words, very old ones! We knew them because we're—about five thousand years old,_ " one piped up happily.

" _We were free-roaming still until—around the time you came here, Ancient Sentinel,_ " the second of the three went on.

" _Then, Minerva asked us to form because the last Sylph Materia—can't be found now,_ " the third one added.

The second one then finished with, " _They're the words you need!_ "

"...And what does each one mean?" Genesis asked curiously, crouching to peer at them closely. "Which way is right-side up?"

" _Come over here!_ " the third fairy said from the far side of the words.

Genesis and Eden both moved over to join her, then the first fairy pointed to the word which was now at the top of the list and said, " _Esprit._ "

The third fairy pointed to the next one as she spoke. " _Assimilate._ "

The second was next, pointing at the third word. " _Compress._ "

From there, Sylph proceeded through the list from top to bottom, in the order of listing them they had now established.

" _Imprint._ "

" _Sever._ "

" _Aegis._ "

" _Maintain._ "

" _Regenerate._ "

That was the last word, so the second fairy said, " _Look for those all in one array, and you can erase them with this._ " She pointed at the last mark on the ground, which had been centered under the list rather than lined up with it.

The mark was both simple and complex, having a base shape like an upside down V with a smaller X through it. Other elements were in the image as well, a wave-like line above the point of the V, and a circle with another X crossing it between the lower legs of the V and below the cross-point of the X so there was no overlap. Well, other than the top arms of the circle's X crossing the legs of the V slightly. (2)

Eden frowned as he gazed at the list, muttering, "Have I ever seen _all_ of those in one single array...?" He then blinked and looked up at Sylph to say, "Thanks for this. We'll work out the rest from here—if you guys would like to explore for awhile?"

The beings traded startled looks, all but the grinning Sylph, all three of whom eagerly agreed, " _We would!_ "

"Okay, just don't start by going up there. We don't want the others we came with to come back here to check on us in case something goes wrong," Eden agreed, pointing in the direction the others had gone in, which was south of the crater, where the bridge was still intact.

" _Okay!_ " Sylph agreed, and they took off, heading east.

" _I believe I shall also take the opportunity,_ " Odin said after a pause, heading up and north.

" _This is acceptable to you?_ " Titan asked curiously. " _Summoners rarely, if ever, give us such an opportunity._ "

"It's not like it takes my energy to maintain you," the blond replied in amusement. "Go have some time to enjoy yourselves. If I happen to need you before you return, how will that affect you?"

" _We will merely be transferred to your location,_ " Shiva answered. " _In that case, I shall also explore._ " She quickly left, also heading northward. After a pause, the other three Summons also took to the air to head east, west, or north initially.

Meanwhile, Genesis had sunk deep into thought and didn't even seem to have noticed the Summons had left. Eden waved his hand in front of the red haired man's face, only to produce no reaction, but when he tried to punch him, Genesis absently caught his fist.

Then, the SOLDIER announced, "Ah-ha!" With a grin, he released the younger man's fist and held the bracer with Black and White on it out in front of him. "Okay, let's see if this will work..."

There were several moments of nothing, but then both Materia flared—and shattered into pyreflies by the millions, which all rose high into the air and began drifting back down as they began fading from view. Except, there were so many of them that the Lifestream couldn't absorb them all at once, so many were reaching the ground and _staying_ there before fading slowly from view over time.

Eden just stared at him, then around at all the pyreflies falling like glowing snow around them, then asked with a strange expression, "What in the world was _that_?"

"I already knew there was an array I had seen all of them in—even Zirconaide has one like that. I just had to remember which one and where it tends to sit in the grand scheme of things, especially with all those complex ones like White and Black. I'll show you the one in Zirconaide later," Genesis said, still grinning. He then whacked Eden over the back of the head, making him yelp.

"What was _that_ for?" the Turk glared.

"Eden! Genesis!" several voices yelled in alarm from the top of the crater ridge.

"That was for distracting me and trying to punch me while I was looking for the right array," the red haired man answered dryly. "Now, we'd better head back up there before they worry too much about us." He turned to march in the direction of the southern edge of the crater through the 'pyrefly snow', leaving an annoyed Eden no choice but to follow him—

Then Eden stopped and called, "Send Libby back here to take a copy of those marks Sylph left us!" Genesis gave a wave over his shoulder, and got to the cliff when Kunzel and Freyra were nearly to the bottom. It didn't take long for Eden to nudge the pyreflies away from the marks in the ground with his foot, or for Libby to join him to make the requested copy. He and Libby then quickly made their way back to the top of the cliff so the whole group could cross back to where the Highwind waited for them.

After that, they returned to Costa del Sol to drop Dio off, then headed to Junon for the requested few days there to satisfy President Shinra. Things were getting back to normal in Midgar, and Tseng had put Elmyra's ring in the supplies in Junon they would head north with. Thanks to Rufus, everyone in Midgar had gotten at least a little time to rest and mourn, but the city was still being made livable again. In a way, it was good, because it meant many new people were moving to the city with the word of the work to rebuild and the fact that nearly every job opportunity in Midgar now had openings if they hadn't already after the Wutain Invasion.

 **Notes:**

(1) I hijacked this name for summoned beings from FFIX (there are probably other FF games which use it as well), but this history and language are made up. I think this would be plausible based on what I know about the Cetra, Minerva, and the very little we know about the ancient history of Gaia.

(2) This mark is completely made up—I have no idea if I literally copied something from somewhere else or copied something very closely, but I didn't really want a mark I couldn't describe, either. It's basically Minerva's general-use delete button. She could use it on anyone or anything she gave form to and erase it, accessibility permitting. No, she doesn't have access to most of the people on the surface as things stand, so the only ones she'd be able to influence that way directly at this point are Aeris and Shelke—which would defeat her own purpose. So no, she _can't_ just use this on Fuhito or the President.


	32. 30-Path to Icicle Inn

Path to Icicle Inn

From Junon, the group of travelers (once again including Carbuncle, who had needed three days to recover) headed north, to Bone Village. From there, they would have to walk, but they first needed to get familiar with the situation in the north, from strange weather patterns to the cold, and even to people to watch out for. Their gear to head to Icicle Inn was much heavier than expected, though they likely wouldn't have to use it right away, and they knew they were going to have to prepare for at least a few nights outdoors. Quis was able to help them get up to speed on all the traffickers passing through the area, but there was no real indication of where they were going to. It didn't help that the 'people' they were now meeting were Ravens—ones with wings, who could fly, making them that much harder to track.

Then someone in the town of—well, archaeologists of a sort, though they seemed to behave more like treasure hunters—mentioned that they fairly frequently dug up Materia or Materia-like stones. Since the group hadn't done much the day they had arrived in town, then spent the previous day with Quis, Rufus insisted they spend at least that day, if not longer, looking for Materia before heading north. The whole group found that both exasperating and amusing, as he seemed to be picking up Eden's fondness for Materia hunting for no particular reason. There was no reason to refuse with Icicle Inn locked in a blizzard right then, so they found picks and began helping the men and women working in the pits where they dug things up.

Sometime in the morning, Eden bowed out and found a place nearby to take a nap as an overwhelming exhaustion hit him suddenly. It took him a few hours to wake up, placing the time towards late afternoon but not quite suppertime. Getting up, he wandered to the edge of the pit where they were using dynamite on occasion to get through the rock—only for an explosion to go off below him and a fair-sized portion of the edge of the pit under him fell, dropping him into the pit in a shower of stones and dirt with a yelp. When he blinked his eyes open, he could hear a panic-like commotion nearby, but since he was fine, he sat up and looked around.

Two red Materia sat near his hands, so he reached out to pick them up, one in each hand. He then blinked and stared in shock, because they were _both_ ones he hadn't heard of before, one called Fenrir and one called Kirin. He had no more time to ponder them as he was quickly scooped up and deposited in the doctor's office, where he was forced to stay until the doctor was sure he wasn't hurt and the rest of his party had arrived. They all looked worried about him—until he gave them a wry grin and held up the two Materia. Then, they gaped in shock for a moment before laughing about his 'unusual methods of Materia hunting.'

After the doctor was done with him, they returned to the Inn and began planning their trip for the next day, which should have headed northwest. Instead, Aeris informed them they were heading east and north, to the Sleeping Forest the villagers had talked about. They pointed out that no one could traverse it, but she replied that they could as long as they were with her, and that Minerva really wanted them to go the route through the Forest because something important was there. They argued for awhile, then gave in when she pointed out they were giving in to Rufus' whims, so why not hers, too?

As such, the next day, they headed into the Sleeping Forest as a single group without their usual forward and rear scouts, where there was a strange aura of surrealism. While they walked, some things bounced around—including a red Materia shard which Genesis eventually reached out and snatched when it neared him, and he told the group it was called Kujata. Also during the time they were walking, small, glittering lights began coalescing around Aeris, and some of those glittering lights also attached themselves to Eden and Genesis, but they weren't nearly so extensive as the ones around Aeris.

Around the time they were debating stopping for supper, they suddenly came to the end of the trees and into a strange, wide, sandy valley which looked like it should have been under the ocean. They stopped to eat, then pressed on through the first segment of the valley because it didn't extend very far before narrowing to another small exit across the way. It was there where they found a nest of Boundfats (which didn't normally leave their area), the only known monster to give the Enemy Skill Death Sentence. They resembled something like a cross between a frog and a puffer fish in a sickly yellow and white, and the only way to trigger Death Sentence was to kill them fast—but then they had no way to remove Death Sentence.

Their problem of needing to kill them all off to disconnect Death Sentence was solved by Genesis unleashing a massive Flare on them once everyone had the Skill they needed. It hadn't taken long with everyone, even Rufus, being very capable in combat by then, so even though some countdowns had gone down to five or ten seconds left, no one died before the Boundfats were dead and the Skill dissipated. A quick check done by Freyra assured them not all the Boundfats were dead, just a lot of them, so they kept going. Previously, the only people who had met Boundfats had been ones traveling in nearby areas and chanced to meet one outside the valley.

It was dusk by the time they stepped out of the ravine exit and into a forest of leafless, skeletal, petrified, white, glowing trees. It filled the majority of the valley.

Even Aeris was too tired to appreciate that, so they turned in for the night, pitching camp where they were. No one was especially worried about being attacked, so they didn't even bother to post guards, despite the unfamiliar territory. Nothing bothered them overnight, and when they woke in the morning, they were ready to set out again, following the path of hardened sand through the glowing trees until they came to what looked like a large cluster of massive seashells in a crafted, stone-lined area. It didn't take them long of exploring the shells to realize the cluster was a village (or a city, by the number of them in the area) and the shells were homes, but the seven odd crystals they had found around the city—and which made them hear voices when they touched them—were puzzling. They also were having trouble finding an exit.

After they had explored the main area, they gathered back near the middle of the cluster (Luxiere had found a Comet Materia in one of the shell houses), where Aeris grinned and said, "Now, follow me!"

"I beg your pardon?" Rufus asked her in surprise as she turned to head for one house.

She turned to look at him and said, "This is the only actual city built by the Cetra—or maybe 'appropriated' is the better word—and is what used to be their capital. The turn-over rate was really high, though. Now, it's just called 'the Forgotten Capital.' And there are a lot of spirits here who want us to go to a specific place."

After a long silence, Rufus gave an amused huff and said, "Lead the way, then, Flower Girl. Since you apparently know where you're going."

"Yup. Two places. The Altar and the 'Music Box Room'. Come along," the half-Cetra grinned again as she led the way to the house she'd been heading for before Rufus had stopped her.

"So, were your ancestors fish or something?" Cissnei asked curiously as they headed for it.

"What?" Aeris blinked at her in momentary confusion, then she laughed. "No, not at all. They found this petrified forest like this, so turned the abandoned shells into homes. We don't actually know what left these shells here, though."

"Why was it called a 'Music Box Room', and why would that be important?" Kunzel asked then, as Aeris opened up the trap door in the house she'd chosen.

"That's—sort of like a room of records the Lifestream stored here, and there are many machines, of a sort, around this city to help people hear and speak with the Planet," Aeris explained as she led the way down a very long stairway of steps which seemed to be made of nothing but light. Many of the group hesitated to step on them until they saw Aeris, Carbuncle, and Genesis do so. "They all focus their energy on the Music Box Room, and—if the Cetra spirits here are right—the room plays planetary music all the time because of it. As long as the machines are running, at least. They had stopped for a long time, but have apparently started running again for no known reason, except maybe for the Planet willing it. We have to pass by the waterfall to get to it."

When she mentioned a waterfall, all of them actively looked out into their surroundings from near the top of the stairs, staring in shock and awe at what they were seeing. An underground lake (there had also been one above ground), an obvious platform with a path leading to it out in the lake, something which resembled a castle, and more than one walkway leading along the stone walls of the cavern. One of those walkways ran alongside and past a waterfall. There was a fair amount of light shining down from above, but there were also beams of light shining upward from other places—likely the 'machines' Aeris had mentioned.

"My turn, Flower Girl," Freyra put in as they neared the bottom of the stairs. "If all of the Cetra could hear the Lifestream—the Planet—why did your people make a machine to hear it? That would have been redundant."

Everyone stared at her in amazement for a moment before Rufus commented, "That is a _very_ good point." His gaze turned to Aeris as he asked, "Do you know? Are 'they' able to tell you?"

"Not them, Minerva," Aeris answered. "She—I guess knew there were non-Cetra coming here? Not something tangible, but a feeling someone not her own children would be arriving sometime in the future. Anyway, so because she knew that, she had us build this for _them_. That was also why this city was built and we kept it protected and somewhat lived-in for a long time, but in the end, only a very few of those people ever came here, and none moved here like they were _supposed_ to have. I think the last ones to visit and stay longer than two weeks were the descendants of the thirteen warriors who now make up Knights of the Round."

The others stared at her in amazement and turned their gazes to the city with a new understanding. "So...in a sense, this could be taken as a kind of 'Promised Land', though the applicable terminology would be quite apart from what my father believes it to be," Rufus said slowly. "Because for those unable to hear the Planet, Minerva, this would be a way to communicate with her directly regardless, rather than relying on interpreters. The machines would also have to run on some natural product, and the only one present here would be Mako, or the Lifestream directly. She created her own precedent, even if her method did her little to no harm."

"You're right," Aeris agreed, grinning at him as she stopped near the path leading out to the platform over the water. "These machines run on Lifestream energy which—I think she described it using a dam's water wheels? The water passes through harmlessly and generates energy by virtue of passing through the 'wheels', not by being used directly. But until the world does a lot of changing for the better, we're not allowed to have this knowledge, not of how to put machines like this together. Now, Genesis, be a dear and go get the Materia off the Altar so you can assess it before you try to use it on Eden."

Everyone gaped at her for a moment before Eden asked, "What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Remember when Minerva said she made a Materia she thought would help you recover, and it was in the north?" the brown haired young woman asked him. He blinked, so she finished, "This is where she produced it. I think that's why she started up the machines again, too, because she needed this area active in order to form it."

"I see," the blond Turk agreed slowly, absently brushing a hand over his tired eyes.

After a momentary pause, Genesis' lips pressed into a fine line as he met the blond's eyes, then he spun, accessed his wings, and flew over to the platform—the Altar—out on the water. He had returned less than a minute after leaving, landing near the Turk as he held a green Materia shard in his hand. He quickly switched it with one of his usual Materia and closed his eyes as he assessed it, then his eyes widened in shock and realization.

Looking up, Mako-blue met gold as the red haired man said, "She called it 'Cleanse' and meant it as a spiritual purifier, similar in a way to what I did to Nero but not nearly so deadly or final. Then again, I don't think this could have cleansed him of the sheer degree of stagnant Mako they had loaded him up with. If it works the way she intends it to, the lingering negative emotions which were infused into you from when your hand landed in the stagnant Mako pool should be dissipated by it. I think I need your help to activate the spell Purify before it reaches its next level—it's like Full Cure that way."

With a sigh, Eden replied, "Genesis, just cast it the same way you originally did the arrays you used on Nero—you know, when those arrays appeared around your wrist?"

"That—oh!" the red haired man blinked, then gave a small smile and removed the Materia from his bracer to hand it to Eden.

As the others watched with rapt curiosity, he extended his hand and imagined the arrays and sub-arrays needed to activate Purify—and sure enough, they appeared in glowing lines around his wrist before green-white energy swirled around Eden. The Turk blinked in surprise as he stared down at himself for a minute, then looked back up at the SOLDIER curiously. He already looked—and felt—less tired, but it was obvious he'd need a little recovery time after being affected by something akin to a curse for several weeks.

"Thanks," Eden said to him with a faint smile, and Genesis nodded.

"You look better. Let's hope that was really all you needed to recover," the red haired man replied.

"Okay, that's good!" Aeris grinned as she jumped forward to hug the blond, then let him go and threw a fist in the air as she said, "Let's go get the last one in the Music Box now!" She then marched away in the direction of the waterfall, leaving the others to trade bemused looks.

"You know, if she wasn't—her, that would have been insulting," Nanaki commented in wry amusement.

"We should catch up to her, though," Cissnei sighed, trotting off after the other fifteen-year-old.

The others followed the two of them to the Music Box, where they explored for awhile as Aeris retrieved an Independent Materia called Underwater, which she handed to Eden. From there, they returned to the upper city, where there was now a path open to the north and west of the city, where they passed through a short cave—and came out in snow. They retreated into the cave to pull out the gear they needed for the trek to Icicle Inn, then realized it was dark out and they'd missed a meal, so set up camp with the intent to leave the cave again in the morning.

Morning came all too soon, and they were setting out again in the snowy region. The day was mostly clear with only light flurries throughout the time they traveled, so they made good time and were a little over half-way to Icicle Inn before deciding to stop and rest. They hoped the second day would proceed so well, but as luck would have it, the flurries were heavier by then and their pace slowed by wind. They had to find a cave to camp in that night because tents wouldn't be sufficient protection, so had to cut their travel time short in the interests of finding a suitable resting place for the night. Things had calmed again by morning, so they were able to make it to Icicle Inn by mid-morning.

A rather pissed Judet was waiting for them by the entrance, saying as they walked up, "You should have been here yesterday. _Yes-ter-day_! Then, you didn't show up, and you didn't bother to call ahead, either, even though Quis told me when you left Bone Village! The travelers who came in late yesterday evening didn't see you, either, and they should have passed you on the way! Where in Shiva's name _were_ you?"

Everyone stopped to gape at her for a moment before Rufus cleared his throat and said, "We happened to have a privileged few who were able to grant us passage through the Sleeping Forest and up onto the shelf from the east, so the travelers wouldn't have passed us if they went the north-western route. As to the other, we would have been here yesterday, but the snow was too heavy for us to make it that far at night. No one informed us we needed to check with you about our expected arrival time or we would have."

She glared around at the group, eyes falling on Cissnei as she said, " _You definitely_ should have known to tell me, Cissnei! Why didn't you?"

"Uh, does this have something to do with danger zones and having a place to start looking if something happens?" Freyra asked suddenly.

"It does," Cissnei agreed with a small sigh. "Sorry, Judet. I don't have any real reason except that I just—didn't think of it."

"You didn't—?" the older woman began in shock. It then turned to anger as she almost yelled, "How the Hellfire would we have felt if you had just _never gotten here_? We've already lost—" she paused as she closed her eyes with an expression more of pain than of anger for a moment. When she looked up at the others again, her gaze was sad and her voice softer, "The northern region is _dangerous_. You don't even have someone with you who knows northern climates, so even just your decision to stop when you did saved your lives. In this environment, someone _needs_ to know where you are and your route and timing so there's a place to start looking quickly— _time_ is one thing you don't have out here. Don't _ever_ be so careless again."

A silence followed as several throats closed at the reminder of the deaths in Midgar, but they were interrupted as a familiar, cheerful voice said from nearby, "So they _did_ get here safely before noon." Their heads all whipped around—to see Zack standing several feet away and grinning like a loon over the rim of his thick, winter coat.

"Zack!" Aeris grinned, running to him to hug him.

"Hello there, Flower Girl. How have you been?" he asked her as he returned her hug.

"So Lazard was serious about having you come here in exchange for them getting some time off to rest," Genesis commented with a wry smile.

"Of course," Zack agreed over the top of Aeris' head. "The rest agreed that it was safer in the north, too. You never did say if Judet was joining you, so Tseng made sure to send me with enough supplies for her, too, just in case. I only got here yesterday as the blizzard was toning down. If Judet's coming along, we'll have to check in with Quis so he knows where to send a rescue team, and if she's not, we have to check with her. Every day, morning and evening. I assume we're setting out tomorrow, though."

"That would be the best plan," Rufus agreed. He then sighed and said, "We should most likely have Judet with us if she's familiar with this region, then."

"Going into the Norther Crater, we _are_ better off having her, especially since this is her hometown. Things happen—especially to Eden—and we'll _all_ be better prepared with her to keep track of dangers we wouldn't think of," Freyra replied.

"Morning for us all it is," the President's son answered. "Now, may we _please_ move this indoors where it's _warm_?"

"I'll check the shops before I join you at the Inn," Eden said.

"I've saved you the trouble, 'Materia Hunter Eden'," Judet replied dryly, tossing him a blue Materia shard. He caught it as she added, "That's the only one of our Materia which is unique to the area, and the rest can be bought in shops in towns you've already been to. Let's get to the Inn so you can settle in while I update Tseng."

"Thanks," the younger Turk answered as he assessed the Materia called Counter (it allowed an automatic counter with the linked Materia when attacked) and all of the travelers followed her and Zack to the Inn.

"What does our route look like from here?" Ruluf asked Judet as they walked.

"There's a long slope leading three quarters of the way down to the Great Glacier and Gaia's Cliff," Judet told him, noting how the others were listening intently. "On clear days, the slope is used as a ski slope and has a lift to bring people from the—nominal—bottom back up to here, but there are times where you can reach Gaia's Cliff on one run down the ski slope—I've done it personally a few times, but never made much effort to climb the Cliff. We could also walk down, but in all honesty, it would take us almost a day to reach Gaia's Cliff—longer if the weather's bad—if we walk down the slope, while it'll take less than half an hour if we ski down. I'm saying that because I checked the slope earlier and it's good to take us right to the foot of the Cliff on the right route.

"From there, we'll have to do the hard work, because Gaia's Cliff isn't an easy climb almost straight up a wall of ice. There's an old man in a cabin at the foot of the Cliff who helps climbers in whatever way he can, so we should probably visit him to find out what state the Cliff is in before we head up. Around the edge of the Crater, the ice turns to stone in the Whirlwind Maze, so called because it has been known to generate winds strong enough to knock a person several feet from where they started. Reaching some areas of the path requires letting it do so, even. Through the Maze is the Crater, and somewhere in the Crater is the deeper Cave, but our data on that area is sparse at best."

"...Wow..." a few of the others muttered.

"Uh...I've never skied before..." Aeris said quietly, her tone nervous.

"Then we'll use the afternoon to practice once you've all warmed up, rested, and ate," Zack replied cheerfully.

"That would be practical, otherwise we may lose some people on the trip down," Rufus agreed.

"Who here knows how to ski?" Judet asked as she stopped outside the door to the Inn to face the group. Zack raised his hand, as did Kunzel, but other than the two of them and Judet, no one had been skiing before. She sighed and said, "Then we'll probably need the whole afternoon to get everyone set for the trip down. In here." As she said the last, she opened the door to the Inn, letting everyone file in behind her.

Inside, the Innkeeper stared at them in shock and awe, then jumped into action with the help of his wife to make sure they could accommodate the group, even as Judet, Kunzel, and Zack began planning out the skiing lessons and who would instruct whom. Judet banned the couples from teaching their significant other by reasoning that they'd never actually move on from the person in question if they did. The two young men in question just gave her amused looks and let her assign them trainees.

In the end, Kunzel ended up taking Genesis (because he was being obstinate and saying he'd skip all that and just fly), Deneh, Nanaki, and Dark Nation. Because of the Blood Taste's size, he actually had to learn to ski because he couldn't be carried like Carbuncle and the robots, and would only learn to ski by 'observing' Nanaki and Deneh, who were similar to alphas to him. It was obvious he would have his work cut out for him just teaching Deneh and Nanaki, let alone Genesis and Dark Nation, so Zack first helped Judet get the other seven working, then helped Kunzel. In the group of seven humans, Zack focused on Rufus, Eden, and Freyra while Judet worked with Aeris, Cissnei, Ruluf, and Luxiere.

Needless to say, they had a rather eventful (and entertaining) afternoon.


	33. 31-Northern Cave

**A/N:** In this part of the world/cave, I'm mainly basing everything off the monsters and general progression in the FFVII original main game.

Northern Cave

The next morning, the group set out down the ski slopes, led by Judet and with Zack and Kunzel flanking them in case something went wrong. Ironically enough, the one who enjoyed the trip the most was Dark Nation, though the others weren't in danger of crashing or losing their balance—all but Aeris, who managed to fall once...and got up with a Support Materia in her hand from where it had been hidden under the snow. The others mainly just needed the two men to make sure they turned at the right times to keep following Judet. By the time they ran out of speed and came to a stop, they were about thirty feet from the foot of the cliff they had been aiming for, Gaia's Cliff.

It _really was_ a steep wall of ice.

After speaking with the man at the cabin, Holzoff, who warned them about keeping their body temperatures up while climbing, and finding out Aeris had found an Added Cut Materia (it let its user follow up use of the linked Materia with an extra weapon strike), they were able to start making their way up the Cliff. Genesis flew Dark Nation, Nanaki, and Deneh to the top of the Cliff, then went exploring around the time snows and winds began coming in. About half an hour later, the snow and wind stopped, and another ten minutes after that, the man returned to direct them to a side path where they could rest at a hot spring. He went back to the three at the top of the Cliff to give them a warm-up, then rejoined the group to actually climb to the next ledge where they'd be able to rest.

It was on the second ledge, in the cave they'd found which would be good for a break, that they met a Stilva, which gave them the Enemy Skill Trine. The monster was similar to a kind of scorpion with many more claws and a very hard shell, but one use of Trine gave it to everyone in the group, so Genesis and Zack wiped it out soon after that, even as Aeris healed everyone. Once it was dead, the others heaved sighs of relief and sat down to eat as Genesis told them about 'Snow' and 'Alex', who had turned out to be a Shiva and an Alexander, both of which he now had new Materia for. Snow, unfortunately, had been the cause of the peculiar blizzards.

Their next portion of the climb took them to the top of Gaia's Cliff, where Deneh and Nanaki told them they'd found the path through Whirlwind Maze while waiting for them—and they'd found a Magic Turbo (it increased both the casting cost and damage ratio of the linked Materia) Support Materia while exploring. Because the two had been able to take the time to find their way through the area, the others were able to pass through it much more quickly than they normally would have been able to. As such, they were at the Northern Crater's inner ridge before they would have stopped to eat supper. That also meant they wanted to explore the glowing patch below them, in the heart of the Crater, so the group made their way down the mixed rocks and ice...and Mako-ice?

It was also then when the monster attacks drastically increased, both in number and in strength. The monsters ranged from Parasites to Gargoyles to Dark Dragons at first, but then expanded to include Scissors. Parasites were a wide, flat, circular and spiked bug-like creature, Dark Dragons looked like the Dragons in Mt. Nibel with near-black scales rather than green, and Scissors looked humanoid with massive double-claws on their 'hands' and 'feet'. While Eden had fought Gargoyles before in Shinra Manor in Nibelheim, these ones were _much_ stronger. They had also just gotten four Enemy Skills in about an hour, Death (1) and Magic Breath from the Parasites and Dragon Force and Laser from the Dark Dragons, though they needed to use Manipulate to get all but Death.

In the glowing core of the crater, they found themselves in an icy 'room' which looked like it had a chunk taken out of it. The monsters weren't stepping into that area, leaving them a place where they could rest and eat as they examined their surroundings. It became clear in short order that there were massive entities stuck in the icy-Mako walls of the chamber, beings Aeris said were the Weapons meant to destroy Jenova. Because of their presence, that was their best place to rest, something they definitely wouldn't be able to do later. They even found a Magic Materia called Fly in a small well-spring of natural Mako which had formed in the hole where the 'chunk' had been taken out. Both Genesis and Eden were amused by that find.

They were also obviously very close to the Lifestream. Using it, Aeris could affirm there was a rather extensive and dangerous cave system beyond their current location.

As such, they took their last good, safe rest to relax for the evening before trying to sleep. Eden and Genesis moved over to one side of the room, away from the others, and took Libby with them—everyone knew they were working on Zirconaide's arrays again. As such, the two men were left to work by themselves.

"Okay, Librarian, we need to see Zirconaide's arrays again," Eden told her. That time, rather than whispering in her ear, he spoke just loudly enough for Genesis to hear him.

Libby projected the data they needed as Genesis' brow rose almost into his hair line and he asked, "Haven't you been taking pains to keep others from knowing her true name? Then again, I had wondered why testing Elizabeth hadn't worked. Very clever of you to call her Libby as short for Librarian instead of the obvious option."

"That's why it worked so well," the blond grinned wryly. "But I thought you should know, just in case you need to fetch something from her and I'm not around to do it myself. We've both been compiling data in her memory banks, after all." He then turned to the projection and said, "But now we have to start working out what changes we need to make to those three arrays now that we know which ones we need to move where and have moved or fixed the ones we were able to."

"I used one of my testing Materia to verify that we couldn't just over-write them, so there must be an order to it, or stages it needs to go through," the red haired man said thoughtfully as he pulled the ones they needed to the fore of the image.

"Maybe it's similar to how the 'words' to create them and to reduce them back to Lifestream were placed in a specific order for a reason," Eden offered. "There may be a similar 'order' to determining what 'type' of Materia they'll be."

"That's true. I was thinking that, myself, and the only question then is, 'what order?' We know the words we'll need will be in these three arrays, so let's start with that, making a list of everything we know. We might have to ask Sylph again."

"Well, there are definitely some of these words I don't know the meanings of, so we'll probably have to get her to at least define those for us. List, first."

They spent a few hours working on those words—and did have Sylph join them to define the words they didn't recognize—glad the area produced enough of its own natural light to let them work no matter how dark it got outside. At that point, they were tired, so joined the others to sleep in preparation for what they were likely to be facing over the next couple days. Needless to say, Rufus was now very grateful for the large group he'd always thought of as 'over-kill'. Morning came almost too soon for most of the group.

Still, they had to push forward, so they ate and prepared themselves for what would be waiting for them as they entered the cave. They were actually grateful that the cave warmed quickly and they could leave their heavy winter supplies in the one safe zone they had, taking only necessities like weapons and food with them. In the first area of the cave past the safe zone, there was one obvious path leading down—and many, many more monsters. They were still the same kinds they had been fighting up until that point.

Until they encountered a Master Tonberry (it looked like a blue, seal-like creature with a fish-like tail and wearing a red coat, carrying a lantern in one hand and a knife in the other, and with a yellow star hovering over its head) and Genesis swore viciously enough to put Cid to shame. When the others looked at him, he just sighed tiredly and explained, "It may move slowly, but it never misses and always kills in one hit. Don't let it get close to you—I'd rather tangle with _ten_ Dark Dragons at once than with _one_ Master Tonberry. Of course, we could also get a Ribbon off it with Morph."

"Aren't there ways around that death thing it does?" Cissnei asked.

"Death Force!" Aeris put in cheerfully, making the others turn to stare at her. "What? It's an Enemy Skill all of you who are collecting them have, so it's not like it's something we're short on." Master Tonberry was very slowly moving closer to them.

"Hold on—speaking of Skills, I think we can use Bio on it," the red haired SOLDIER commented. "If we use it enough, we can morph it into a Ribbon. Let's do it this way—and Eden, get Morph out, would you?" A moment later, he had spewed Bad Breath at it, which poisoned it as Genesis had thought.

"Hey, how did you get Bad Breath if you can only get it from Malboros, which are only found here?" Kunzel asked in shock.

"Uh, Kunzel, monsters _do_ sometimes travel," Genesis sighed as he rolled his eyes. "There have been _at least_ eleven Malboro attacks in areas as far south as Fort Condor just since I joined. I got Bad Breath from repelling one of those."

"Oh..." he answered as Zack gave him a grin and side-stepped the Master Tonberry. It turned to face Zack again, making Kunzel comment in amusement, "Looks like you found something that really wants to kill you, Zack."

"I'd be more worried if it wasn't a monster," the black haired young man replied in amusement.

Aeris had been chuckling at their antics as she gazed at Zack—only to suddenly call urgently, "Look out behind you, Zack!"

He yelped and dodged, only for—what looked like a Shinra Infantryman to shoot past him and ram into the Master Tonberry, causing the two to kill each other. Metal grating on metal caused everyone to look back at Zack, where another man like the first was apparently trying to kill him. Around a nearby pile of rock which they had thought was just sitting in front of a solid rock wall came a strange-looking—machine? It had a lance-like blade for a head, arms with metal plating on the outside and two deadly claws for fingers, and seemed to have a large, metal ball in place of its legs. The Shinra logo, while somewhat faded, was painted on its chest.

"What on Gaia...?" Freyra asked in confusion as she shot at the machine—and her bullets had next to no effect. Neither did Ruluf's bullets or Luxiere's sword.

"Here," Eden said as he clapped and put his hands down to create a spike to spear the machine.

The spike retracted quickly at his bidding, and the machine was a pile of scrap metal they could examine further—only for a bird similar to an Epiolnis to sprint over the pile and launch itself at Eden, trying to peck him. Eden blocked it with his sword, then Genesis nearly incinerated the flightless bird before hitting the Trooper with the same flame attack.

While the bird took significant damage, the Trooper didn't.

As the—clearly insane—Trooper was still fighting Zack, Freyra and Ruluf traded looks, then both moved into better positions to kill him. The Trooper died, and everyone just stood there in stunned shock for a minute.

"So...What just happened?" Cissnei asked, expression one of puzzled disgust. "I mean, Shinra sending their own people to attack us like this..."

"I'm not sure they were 'sent' by that definition," Zack replied, holding out his PHS to show SOLDIER's Missions page. One was open, one noted as being for a 'northern cave'. "There's not much to it, yet, but they were exploring caves which were supposed to come out—I guess near the outer edge of the Great Glacier? Maybe they actually come right through and connect to this cave? The problem is that a lot of our people assigned to go exploring that cave system stopped reporting back, and for the ones who did, it was to ask for help because some of their own allies had attacked them."

The others stared at Zack as Genesis crossed his arms and said, "That's true. It seems the 'back door' is a far more dangerous one than the 'front door', in that case."

"But the room we were in was probably Jenova's and Jenova isn't around, so the only other 'presence' here capable of doing that is Minerva," Aeris assessed with a puzzled frown, then marched over to the rock to check behind it. Carbuncle followed her readily.

"Aeris, wait!" Cissnei called as she ran to catch up with her. "What are you planning to do?"

"Find out if it _is_ Minerva and ask her why she's doing it," Aeris replied. "I'm going." She then turned to look at Zack and said, "You're not coming."

"...I'm not?" he asked in confusion.

"Every monster except one was fixated on you. Better if you stay here where only the more _normal_ monsters will be," she told him. "Besides, I want the Cetra to come with me."

"You'll be taking my two strongest guards in that case," Rufus glared at her.

"So start _using_ things like the Enemy Skills you've been gathering," Aeris replied to him dryly. "And Zack won't be a bad guard, or any of the Turks here, or even Kunzel and Luxiere." She turned to Cissnei and added, "Because I'm taking Eden and Genesis, you should stay with Rufus for now."

"But _you're my_ charge!" Cissnei glared at her. "Tseng will kill me if I don't do my job and you get hurt."

"Which is why she's appropriating the Cetra, meaning _both_ of Rufus' _assigned_ guards," Eden answered the younger Turk, who looked at him in confusion. "Also, it's a lot less likely for whatever's going on in the other portion of the caves to affect those with Cetra blood, especially if it _is_ Minerva doing it. Better to risk those of us with some immunity than those with none. You, Zack, Rufus—you all have no Cetra blood in you, or at least none that's active, so you're in more danger of going insane than we are."

"...So we're splitting into t—?" Freyra began.

A massive roar cut her off as two Dark Dragons charged at them, followed quickly by a third. With sighs, they went to work on taking out the new arrivals, then returned to the middle of the path to finish the discussion they had begun.

"So...two groups?" Freyra asked.

"We sort of have to," Deneh put in, head cocked to the side as she frowned. "If those four enemies were any indication, the other side is going to be more dangerous, and this side would have been dangerous enough. I don't think you three should go by yourselves, so Nanaki and I will join you—we're the next least likely to be affected by whatever happened to those men. Eden and Genesis may miss Enemy Skills, though."

"We'll stay a little longer, then. It's not like we don't have food," Genesis replied with a shrug, sounding amused.

"Don't be careless, though," Judet frowned at them. "And remember to check the time and report to me so I can give an update to Quis. If you don't, I swear I'll kill you, then bring you back to life just so I can kill you again!"

Eden rubbed the back of his head and said, "Assuming we'll be gone that long, we'll make sure we do."

"You had better," the older Turk reiterated, causing Freyra to chuckle and Cissnei to sigh.

"Calm down, Judet. You can get mad at them if, or when, they don't report in, not when they haven't even had a chance to do—or not do—so," the red haired Turk told the pale haired woman. Judet glared at her, then turned her back on the group.

"We'll take Carbuncle—since it's already decided it's coming with us—and Libby," Aeris added. "I'm not sure about anything else with what we could be walking into. Libby is enough of a chance if Shinra machines are being taken over, too. If you need to call on Carbuncle, though—do it anyway. Eden has one of his own he could call for."

"Very well. Travel safely, then, and we'll meet back at that safe zone we found when we each finish traveling our respective caves," Rufus finally agreed with a sigh.

With that, the two groups parted ways, Deneh, Nanaki, Genesis, and Eden following Aeris to where Carbuncle waited by the rock, Libby clinging to Eden's shoulder again. Rufus, on the other hand, almost hesitantly turned to head down the path they had been intending to follow, but then realized he had both a larger group and one which was highly skilled. With three SOLDIER Firsts, along with four Turks and Dark Nation, who was capable in combat, even if Stray Hope and Cait Sith were very literal non-combatants, he felt he'd be safe enough.

They fought their way through the rest of that path down, only to find themselves at the bottom of a cave with two paths to follow. If they hadn't had any less-skilled- or non-combatants, they may have been able to risk splitting into two groups, but everyone felt safer staying together. Zack took the lead—and everyone was immediately very glad when the first thing they met down the path they had first chosen was a Dragon Zombie. The first thing it did was use Pandora's Box on them, one of the Enemy Skills they were after, but the Skill sure packed a major punch and reduced their health exponentially. It was Rufus using White Wind several times in succession which kept them alive long enough to get Shadow Flare off the Dragon Zombie as well before Zack and Ruluf killed it.

After the Dragon Zombie, they met a Malboro, followed by a few Parasites—then a Pollensalta and a Death Dealer in quick succession. While the Dragon Zombie had simply resembled a decaying Dragon with skeletal wings, the Death Dealer had greatly resembled a Joker, but in all black 'clothing' and with superficial—and creepy—minor differences. The Malboro had resembled a green plant with a multitude of root-tentacle legs (Dark Nation seemed to detest those legs and attacked them viciously), a bulbous 'head' mostly filled with a massive, fanged jaw, and many dozens of 'eye-stalks' rising from all around its head. Of all the monsters, the Pollensalta was the eeriest, as 'she' resembled a human woman with dark hair and barely covered in a yellow bodysuit. Only 'her' abilities assured them they weren't fighting a human woman.

And 'abilities' every one of the monsters had, though they had already gotten the ones off the Parasite and (recently) the Dragon Zombie. The Malboro had Bad Breath, of course, and the Pollensalta gave them Angel Whisper when they used Manipulate on 'her'. Also using Manipulate, they were able to get Roulette off the Death Dealer (it was Kunzel who remembered to use Death Force on them)—and with that, Rufus, Freyra, Ruluf, Kunzel, and Luxiere all Mastered their Enemy Skill Materia.

It took them standing there in shock for a moment while the rest of the group took out the Death Dealer before it registered in their minds that they had Mastered it. After a pause, Freyra let out a whoop as she threw her fist in the air, then jumped to hug Kunzel around the neck while she laughed. He just grinned stupidly and hugged her back as Rufus snorted in amusement, eyes gleaming with pride as Luxiere grinned widely and Ruluf had a faint smile and a proud look in his eyes. The Death Dealer went down fast, so the others faced them again with smiles or wide grins and words of congratulations, even Judet, knowing how hard they had been working to Master something nearly impossible to Master.

However, they didn't have long to celebrate, as more monsters came up from deeper down the path they were following, more of the same kinds they had just been fighting. As such, they pushed forward and kept moving down that path. Along the way, they found a W Summon Materia, and reached the bottom of the path to find it splitting into two from there. First, they ate their lunch, then worked out the next stage of the trek they were on. Just to make sure the path leading back up would return them to the same place as the first juncture they'd found, they followed it (it did), fighting those same monsters all along the way. The path was shorter on that side, and the trip back down it was much less monster-riddled than the one going up.

As such, they opted to move on to the next path from the second junction, which led them into caves with King Behemoths, Armored Golems, Allemagnes, and Master Tonberrys. The Allemagne looked like an Evil Eye, but yellowish with wings in a purple-whiteish color, the King Behemoths were the yellow ones with dark blue manes—like the one which had killed Maur—and the Armored Golem was a stone, humanoid-like being covered in metal plates.

All three of the Lady Turks decisively wiped out any King Behemoth they saw, successfully earning them several surprise attacks on the monsters as they fought with a kind of cold rage or hatred the men had never seen before. In fear for their lives, the men (except for Ruluf, who watched their backs) backed off and let the women do what they wanted, but fought the other monsters as they came up. Zack, Luxiere, and Kunzel mainly handled the Armored Golems, but everyone else participated equally in fighting the Allemagnes and Master Tonberrys.

After that section, they reached a small cave section they could easily defend, and a check of the time showed it was pretty late in the day, so they decided to stop there to rest for the night. Not long after, before they had fully settled and set up their watch for the night, Judet got a call from Eden, and shortly after she affirmed both groups' safe arrivals at a rest stop, she called Quis to update him on their progress. Their night watch would switch three times that night.

In the morning, they were able to get the morning meals and calls out of the way, but finding places and means to deal with bodily necessities was harder and required the men and the women to split into two groups to tend to those needs. At least travel food had meant they had retained water the previous day, but those functions could no longer be put off. After that was taken care of (Rufus had found it the most awkward of all of them), they set out into the next segment of the cave. Only the Allemagne and Master Tonberry were familiar to them in that section.

Besides those two monsters, they also met Movers, Gighees, Christophers, and Magic Pots. A Mover looked like a glowing, red ball about the size of a basketball which had two black dots on it which served as eyes, and nearly always came in sets of three. Christophers always appeared with Gighees, which had an oddly musical theme to them. The former had a blond, human boy's appearance with a face covered by a mask with two long, wing-blade-like protrusions and the latter was a pink, horse-like creature wearing a star-covered vest and with what looked like a guitar neck for a tail. The Magic Pot was a gold jar with an eye on it and a purple, imp-like creature living in it.

On their path, which was rather watery right then, they found a Health Absorb Materia, and as they were fighting, they ended up in a cavern where some grass was growing without even realizing it until the most recent round of enemies had been dealt with. After fighting a few more monsters there, they could stop and eat, then proceed to move forward—back into a round of King Behemoths, Armored Golems, Allemagnes, and Master Tonberrys. Those lasted through the couple of grassy caverns, until they came out in a shining, massive area where they were apparently breathing fresh air and there was essentially a waterfall of Lifestream flowing around them.

It also looked like the next stage of the journey was going to be across many floating, rock platforms with a glowing bridge of square panels of light similar to the stairs in the Forgotten Capital at the bottom. Each of the fifteen platforms leading to the bridge also had enemies on them, enemies which didn't seem inclined to leave the platform they were on. Six of them were a new type of monster called an Iron Man, which was a metal, armored being with a very large sword, but the other nine platforms either had Dragon Zombies or a pair of Allemagnes on them.

With small sighs, the group began working their way across the platforms, battling each monster as they came to it. When the last Iron Man fell, they were able to proceed across the bridge—

Only to find their vision flaring, then going dark, and finally, turning green-hued white as the energies around them became the glowing, shifting bands of pure Lifestream.


	34. 32-Second Trigger

**A/N:** Enemies in this portion of the cave are based on ones which appeared in Crisis Core in Zack's longest-running and 'final' optional Mission, though the cave is mainly my own creation because the images I saw of it from Crisis Core data made it too little like a proper cave people were exploring. More at the end, since I edited more than just this.

Second Trigger

Aeris, Carbuncle, Eden, Libby, Genesis, Deneh, and Nanaki made their way through the cave past the rock, only to find themselves working their way through a rather long, wide tunnel at first. They found an odd few crazed Infantrymen, more of those 'ball rider' machines, and even a couple of updated Sweepers mixed in with the monsters apparently native to the caves. As for the monsters on that part of the path, they met Parasites, Malboros, Pollensaltas, Death Dealers, and Dragon Zombies—that meant the two men were able to collect their last Enemy Skills without issue—but the real worry were the Infantrymen and the two kinds of machines. There were also a few of the strange birds there. Needless to say, having Carbuncle give them shielding was very useful and welcome, and Libby's decision to stay with Aeris (she had no choice but to act as their full-time healer) was also good.

They made it through that long, downward-sloping tunnel and found a small section like an independent room to sit for a bit and have their meal. The next section they progressed into actually had two paths, one leading up and one leading down, but they all knew they had to make their way down, so chose that path. It took them into a deep, dark cavern where they had to half-climb down from path and ledge to path and ledge, all while being attacked by rather powerful monsters they weren't familiar with or expecting. After a check in his system, Genesis said there were actual registries for monsters 'like them' in Shinra's database, but they would have been one of the rarer variants listed.

There was a Hunting Hound first and foremost, which was a brown Guard Hound type which was quite a bit more powerful, and a yellow Deathgaze, which was very similar to an Evil Eye—also more powerful than its more common relative. Also noted to have more normal relatives were the Scissor Devil and Tycoon (the name produced a snort of amusement from Eden), which were a stronger Death Claw and Griffin (1), the former colored in brown and red and the latter brown and white. The Tycoon only differed in its mixed eagle and lion appearance from the Griffin by its brown and white (rather than completely white) wings, paler brown coloring, and white head-crest (rather than black).

They also had every known type of Sahagin and Tonberry, the former ranging from the normal Sahagin to the Emperor Sahagin (they also ranged in coloring across the green, brown, and gray scale), and the latter including everything from the Tonberry to the Holy Tonberry (Master, Guard, and King). They ranged in color from yellowish to green to blue with brown or red coats, and all but the normal Tonberry had either a star or a crown hovering above its head. On top of those, they still had random birds, which they now knew were called Diatrymas by their brown, white, and lilac-ish coloring (which should have been extinct), Infantrymen, 'ball rollers', and Sweepers.

It was a long trek down the cliff to the bottom of the cavern, where they reached flat ground and found another cave leading deeper into a small room like they'd found above before it led forward. The small room was something they were grateful for because it gave them a chance to rest, and a check of the time showed it was actually time to stop for the night. Deneh reminded Eden to call Judet to let them know they'd found a place to stop for the night, which he did, and Carbuncle set up a Shield for them around the room so they would all be able to rest for the night. Morning came all too soon, and the men and Deneh woke up to find Aeris already awake and cooking a packet of dried soup—she'd gotten the water for it by taking Eden's Water Materia (the others looked at the blond in confusion at that) and the fire by using her Fire Materia.

"I didn't know there _was_ a Water Materia," Genesis commented.

"I found it in the Wutain Black Market shop," Eden answered dismissively. "One called Aero, too—and Tornado now makes more sense."

"I see," Genesis blinked. "Get Zack to make me a copy of Aero, then."

"Sure," the Turk agreed.

"On a side-note," Nanaki cut in, eyes on Aeris as she mainly just sat with her portion of the soup in her hands. "Aeris, you're the one most able to sense the—discord here. What are you able to tell us about it?"

She looked up and shook her head. "It's because something isn't right, something which wasn't supposed to be happening. That's all I can tell. It's like—something is just _wrong_ in general. We'll have to ask her to find out."

"Meaning she may not actually have a reason to give us?" Eden blinked in surprise.

"No, I'm sure she has one," the brown haired now-sixteen-year-old replied. "It just doesn't transfer well through the Lifestream because it's too broad. We'll know when we get to her and can ask her."

"Yeah," the blond agreed easily.

After eating, the men took a turn at relieving themselves and Deneh did so after them while Aeris waited in the protected area, then Eden called in to Judet to let her know they were setting out again. They progressed into the next portion of the cave, where they had Diatrymas, Sahagins, and Tonberrys in large numbers (less of the Tonberrys than the others, though) with the Infantrymen and two types of machines. It turned out to be an oddly short segment of cave which was rather winding and more narrow than previous portions of the cave, taking only about an hour to cross.

The next region of the cave was wet and watery with several patches of deep water they couldn't see the bottom of even though the water was clear, including a long line of water they had to swim across just to proceed. Rather than swimming, though, Eden used alchemy to create a bridge so they could cross, then dismantled it after they were all safely on the other side. Libby risked jumping into the water to examine the spikes Eden left behind, then caught up to them as the first thing they met were a few of a strange-as-Hell monster Genesis later told them was likely a Lature Dano.

It was similar to a very skinny, black dog in body shape, but its neck and head were red with a more demon-ish appearance (including large, curved 'tusks'), and its tongue and tail were like decorative ribbons—very _sharp_ ones. The monsters also all wore a device which they could only call a 'dog's robe' in purple for the base of the robe with a wide, neck-line hem in black, red, and gold to which a green, decorated cloth had been attached. The whole thing was rather decorative and detailed—and didn't come off their bodies, meaning it was...part of their fur? They had a headdress which was similarly attached to their bodies in red and gold with white, furry edging and a 'slot' for a single, gray-black feather standing up proudly above their heads.

While they were strong opponents, so were the Cerberuses, Explosives, and Three Stars they also met in the watery area of the cave. The Cerberus was a black Guard Hound type which was definitely more buff than any Blood Taste, and it had a glowing, purple tentacle. The Explosive was a relative of the Bomb, but with the middle of its body blackened in the format a Destroyer's face was, and the Three Stars were literal clusters of Movers which traveled in threes by necessity, making them glowing red balls each with two tiny, black eyes. Diatrymas, Sahagins, and Tonberrys were still there, fewer of them than in most other cave sections, and only the more powerful variants of the Sahagins (Prince, King, and Emperor) and Tonberrys (King and Holy).

The most annoying thing about the fountain-like room of pools of water they were in wasn't the monsters or the water, it was how slick the water had made the stones beneath their feet, causing them to slip, or even to fall, fairly frequently. Battle was made difficult as well—and why in the world was a fire-based monster in the watery chamber? On their trek through the water, Genesis slipped and kicked something, then blinked and reached down into the water to pick up the thing he'd kicked, a purple Materia which he passed to Eden. It was called Mega-All. Finding it went a long way towards fixing the bad feelings brought on my their many slips and falls.

At the bottom of that room, they stepped into a large chamber where grass and some flowers were growing, but no monsters were nearby, so they had their lunch while they could—it was past noon due to how hard the previous segment of the cave had been to traverse. While there, Eden passed some of his gathered Materia to Genesis to keep for him until they got back to Midgar, because his pockets were already over-full with the new ones they'd gathered.

Once they'd eaten, they moved forward cautiously into the room—only to find some monsters materializing out of the shadows right in front of them. Those monsters were Funny Faces, but with purple heads and black 'skirts'—and they were equally as problematic as Funny Faces, if not more-so. Genesis just sighed and admitted 'Shadow Monks' had on occasion threatened places on the surface, but it was very rare.

They also met Abyss Worms (which also rarely threatened the surface), Great Malboros, Jabberwocks, and Belials. The last three were near-blanks in their databases, though a Great Malboro was larger than a Malboro and had some brown streaks in it, the Jabberwock was very similar to a Behemoth in black with a dark red mane, and the Belial was like a Gargoyle, but with a mostly black body and red wings. All of them were also much more powerful than their normal cousins on the surface. The last two also turned out to be some of the most difficult opponents, ones they found closer to the bottom of the 'stepped' room. From the top, it had looked like another cliff until they'd reached the end of said 'cliff', only to find it leading to platforms which progressively descended.

They reached the bottom of the grassy room and came to a nearly pitch-black cave, which they progressed cautiously into—only for the ground under them to transition into square, glowing panels of light similar to the stairs in the Forgotten Capital. Soon after all of the ground had become those glowing panels, light suddenly flared, then darkness fell, followed by bands of white-green light appearing in their vision. The flash had caused them all to halt, but when their vision had fully cleared—they all had to stop to stare.

Not far from them stood the other group, who were all staring at them in equal surprise. Eyes moved to a point to the side and between the two groups as light flashed there and Minerva appeared, just as they had seen her the previous time. Her expression seemed partly confused and partly amused, but she told them (again without opening her mouth), _:Welcome to my other core, wrought by necessity to heal the damage of the Calamity's arrival here. Other than Materia and Enemy Skills, what need would you have for descending so deeply to the core of my land?:_

"You can thank Eden—your 'Ancient Sentinel'—for training me to be very thorough in exploration," Rufus replied in amusement. "Their group actually _was trying_ to reach your core to speak with you, though. We didn't expect to both appear here at about the same time."

 _:I see,:_ she replied, turning her gaze to the group of those with Cetra blood and the two lions. _:And what was it you wished to speak with me about, my Children?:_

"The monsters and Infantrymen and machines going insane," Aeris said boldly. "If the Calamity can't influence them anymore, that would mean the machines and Infantrymen went insane because you caused them to, let alone the monsters. Why?"

Minerva gave a slight nod and answered, _:The Calamity from the Skies had embedded in nearly every monster in the world to attack, to attack and attack until nothing remained. Monsters on the surface were able to reach what they were directed to attack—humans—but those in these caverns could reach nothing from here. They resorted to attacking anything they could reach, other monsters, the humans coming from the far cave entrance, machines. In the chaos, the humans were also pressing deeper into these caves, much deeper than I felt comfortable having them. You are exceptions, not the rule. However, my intent had not been to cause the humans and their metal creations insanity, it had been to give them more means to defend themselves while causing them an instinct to leave this place._

 _:The result was—less than satisfactory and became equally as dangerous as the desire to attack which the Calamity had embedded in the monsters. I had been pondering what would be required to undo what both she and I had inadvertently done here. Much of the pressure has been alleviated by your passage, the numbers greatly reduced, but the issue not yet solved. Were I at full capacity, it would be—easier to repair this damage, though still difficult, and as things are at this moment, I yet have to arrange the required delicate working which I feel has the greatest likelihood of success. Until I am able to implement it, I would prefer you not travel a second time through these caverns. As such, I shall transport you directly back to the heart of the Crater above-ground.:_

"I see," Aeris nodded slowly.

"Do you have any other messages for us while we're here, though?" Genesis asked eagerly. "Oh, and thank you for Cleanse, by the way! Eden is doing much better now." He was grinning like a loon.

The blond Turk rolled his eyes at Genesis, then looked at Minerva and gave her a smile as he said, "Yes, thank you for that. I feel like myself again."

She inclined her head and said, _:That is good to know.:_ She then paused for a moment before saying, _:I am grateful to you, all of you, for everything you have done. I have a request of you, my Beloved Child and your chosen partner, which I shall discuss further with you later. For all other messages—they have all been given. Unless you have other questions or requests of me, this ends our time together here.:_

"Oh, I had thought of something, but I think you'd have already thought of it yourself if it became necessary to leave the world," Eden said suddenly. She turned her gaze to him and gave a nod. "You obviously wouldn't want to take someone like Fuhito with you, and I don't know what your ability to target is like, so—if you need to grab an area, you might have to plan for the ones you want to save to be on the outer edges of your zone. Of course, I'm hoping you won't have to resort to that at all, but..."

She gave a small smile to him as the others just stared, and said, _:I had also put much thought into how I would be best to save those I wished to save should the worst happen. I am aware of every life upon my soil, however, to influence them becomes more difficult. Should circumstance give me time to retrieve individuals, that would be ideal, yet should there be no time, your suggestion would be for the best. I had not thought to place the one or ones I wished to save at the outer edges of the zone I would take, only because my focus had always been on those I wished to save. Thank you, Ancient Sentinel.:_

He gave her a small smile and replied, "Good luck with sorting out the mess in the caves, and whatever else happens."

Inclining her head to him, she asked, _:Are there any other questions?:_ No one said anything as most of them traded confused looks, so she said, _:In future, please visit me only in the safer cavern where the core of Omega is, and do not share any of these three entrances to my core with others without my permission.:_

"Why?" Ruluf asked with a blink before he could stop himself.

Her gaze turned to him in mild amusement as she replied, _:To me, this is what your physical heart is to you. It must be protected, yes?:_

Ruluf stared, then blushed faintly and replied, "Fair enough."

She inclined her head, still looking a little amused, then looked to the others, who all had thoughtful expressions on their faces. _:Was that all? Are you prepared to return to the Crater now?:_ Again, looks were traded, then the others began nodding and giving affirmatives. Once everyone had given agreement, she told them, _:Very well. Rest well this night, and travel safely upon the morrow. There are dangers beyond monsters in these northern lands.:_

The group blinked, but then they found themselves standing back in the Mako-icy 'room' where the frozen Weapons were. Their supplies were there and unharmed, and they all had to trade shocked expressions.

"Well, I suppose Genesis and I can spend most of the evening working on those arrays until it's time to sleep," Eden commented. The others chuckled, but Genesis immediately moved over to the place they'd sat to work on it before. Eden and Libby quickly joined him.

FoW

Morning came all too soon, even though they got a decent rest the night before. No one was especially looking forward to the trip back to Icicle Inn—then again, they would have to spend nearly three days walking through inhospitable land surrounded by equally inhospitable mountains. Getting to the Crater had been easy, but getting back to the lift would be as much of a trial as climbing the Cliff had been. During the first day, they managed to get back to the bottom of Gaia's Cliff (much to Holzoff's shock) and crossed the Great Glacier back to where the mountains drew close to their path again. They stopped in caves there for the night, then set out in the morning.

The second day was similar, but they were forced to stop much earlier as winds rose to a near-blizzard state, temporary or otherwise. Again, Genesis and Eden were working on the arrays for Felicia, managing to finish sorting, moving, and fixing what they could, as well as working out their process for how they were going to remove the last one from her. They had about half the day and nothing much else to do, after all, and they would be very relieved to be able to fix the young woman's problem—they knew she would be relieved as well. The one major problem was going to be the number of people knowledgeable with the arrays they would need to go through the whole process, as by their calculations, they'd need five—Eden and Genesis, and three more 'Mages' Genesis agreed to track down.

By morning, the snow and wind had stopped, so they set out again. Libby and Carbuncle were riding on Nanaki's back, Stray Hope was riding on Deneh's, and Cait Sith had gotten comfortable on Dark Nation's back. They were to the back of the group with only Ruluf and Kunzel behind them for scouting, and Zack and Judet were leading the way while Genesis, Luxiere, Eden, and Freyra were gathered closely around Rufus in the middle of the group. It was as they were passing through the trails leading up the slopes along the mountains shortly before noon that they realized they were in trouble.

Rumbling began above them, making them look up—to see a wall of heavy snow barreling down the mountainside at them. They froze for a moment until Judet yelled, "Into the caves!" She headed for them, and everyone moved to follow her—

Two dark shapes dropped out of the sky, both looking like black winged, feathered humans wearing dark gray, one seizing Eden and the other blocking the path of the rest of the group to the caves. Eden struggled to get free of the one carrying him, and he nearly succeeded as the Raven (he was sure it was the new breed of them Fuhito had been trying to produce) dropped him so he was dangling from the Raven's hand by one wrist. Then he froze as he realized he was above the moving sheet of snow and ice, knowing falling into that would leave him as good as dead. A look around showed him where the bottom edge of the avalanche was hitting the ground at the base of the mountain where his friends were.

An expression of pain crossed his face, but some sort of light sparked from where the snow hit, making him blink and frown.

He had no more time to think on it as the Raven pulled him up into his arms and put a blade to his throat, then said in an eerie, gravelly voice, "Behave or I'll be taking your corpse back to Fuhito."

"How long is this going to take? Because, really, I have better things to do with my time," Eden scowled at the man—the chimera. There was no mistaking the mix of human and bird in the one being, and if they were even a fraction of the original Ravens' durability, they would be deadly opponents.

"We'll arrive at the Lab in a few minutes. The rest is up to him," the Raven replied.

They were passing quickly over the mountains, and Eden noted a trail wide enough for at least one truck to travel on which led in the direction they were going. It didn't look like it had been used recently, but it must have seen use at some point. As the Raven dove to land, his heart leaped into his throat, especially when he looked down and just saw a blank patch of snow at what appeared to be their landing spot by their trajectory. They were going too fast and would crash, though—he was sure of it!

A few moments later, something happened as they hit the snow—

And his vision went dark.

FoW

The moment the avalanche came down on them was also the moment all of them began working on instinct. Aeris and Carbuncle both cast shielding, Aeris by using Great Gospel and Carbuncle in the usual way of its protective nature. Others did similar things, but Genesis called on Phoenix to warm them and melt the snow immediately around them, then called for Atomos to devour the snow. There were a few minutes of them being covered in snow with only protective bubbles around them keeping it from crushing them, but then it all got dragged away by a massive head which produced a gravity force strong enough to drag virtually the entire avalanche into its giant mouth.

It was both a disgusting and oddly disturbing sight, but the others were all thankful for its ability to get rid of the snow. When it was done, it vanished.

"Where's Eden?" Freyra asked tensely.

Genesis saw a flash of black where he remembered the Raven having landed before the avalanche came down, so glared and marched over to it, where he found the Raven laying face-down in what was left of the snow. The Raven began to stir, so he drew his sword and stabbed him through the chest, causing him to jolt and tip his head to look at him—and smirk.

"Tell me where Eden is—where Fuhito's lab is—and I'll make your death quick and simple. Otherwise, well—I'm in a bad mood, and if I have to go searching for him myself, I'm going to make you suffer a lot of pain I'm sure you haven't yet felt," the furious SOLDIER told the Raven stuck to his blade. To emphasize the point, he gave his sword blade a twist in the Raven's chest. The result was a sharp intake of breath.

"You're welcome to go to your death, Shin-Ra scum," the Raven replied in a distorted, gravelly voice. "There's a known trail up the mountain to areas where the Icicle Inn villagers used to get wood. It runs deeper than that into the mountain passes. You'll find the lab—and Fuhito—at the end of it." His smirk was wild and three quarters insane. "Go ahead and try to kill me, foolish SOLDIER!"

"I know the path he means," Judet said with a glare. "We can find a route to it not far from here, but it'll take us hours to get to the end of the path. I'll call Quis and get him to send us support while we go up there. What does he mean, 'try to kill him'? You seem to be doing a pretty good job."

The Raven cackled in amusement as Genesis' eyes narrowed in fury, then he lifted his other hand and recalled the arrays which he had used on Nero the Sable. They lit around his wrist, and the Raven's eyes widened as his body dissolved into pyreflies. When he looked up, the others were staring at him in shock, and some degree of horror.

"Where are we going, Judet?" he asked her, still facing the mountains.

"This way," she replied, walking past him as she pulled out her PHS to call Quis.

 **Notes:**

Continued from the A/N at the start of the chapter: I didn't take all of the enemies which appeared in that 'final' Mission line in Crisis Core (we can immediately negate Wutain Troops and any G types for obvious reasons), usually picking only one, normally the strongest, variant of any kind of monster (otherwise, there's just too damned many of them). Most of the machines are non-entities as well because this is 6-7 years before Zack would have gone into most of the levels of that cave, so they haven't been created yet. There's also much, much less Shinra presence there, and they haven't gotten nearly to the bottom.


	35. 33-Host and Soul

**A/N:** For anyone interested in moving to the new third path of this monster crossover story, Fates of Worlds—Dimensions, this is the last chapter you NEED to read in this path for FoWD to make sense without missing out on a lot of important data.

Host and Soul

Eden woke with a small groan as he gave his head a shake and struggled to open his eyes. He had no idea where he was, only that it was warm enough for him to be comfortable in just his suit, and apparently, he had weights around his wrists and ankles. When his eyes finally opened, it was to see a large, plain room which was only moderately lit by a single light in the middle of it—and there were bars separating the rear of the room from the door side, as well as another set of bars dividing the rear portion of the room in two. He was in the left of the two cages, and—Felicia was in the other!

Fuhito was going to try to Summon Zirconaide at Felicia's expense!

The woman, who had been sitting with her back against the wall and shackles with chains around her wrists and ankles, lifted her head to look at him. She looked just plain exhausted, but she managed to give him a ghost of a smile as she commented, "So you've finally woken up."

"What knocked me out?" he asked.

Felicia shook her head. "I don't know. You were out cold when he brought you in here. Also, he has the four shards of Zirconaide, and is just preparing what he needs to Summon it. He took all our weapons, armor, and Materia. This is pretty much the worst case scenario."

Making a face, Eden sat up and began taking stock of his own situation. He had the same kinds of shackles as Felicia did, and while they allowed some movement, they didn't allow a lot of it. Fuhito's major flaw, one Eden could heavily exploit, was in the fact that Fuhito didn't know Eden could freely use alchemy as long as there was no Reactor and he could put his hands together. The shackles were more than loose enough to let him clap, and touching the floor was easy, too. Actually, touching anything in the room was easy.

"It could be worse, _believe me_ ," the blond Turk told her dryly. "I'm more worried about the others, because the Ravens brought an avalanche down on them in order to snatch me."

Her eyes widened as she paled. "An avalanche? In this climate, that's as good as a death sentence!"

"...I don't know, but yeah, usually it would be. I won't write them off yet, but they're honestly in worse shape than we are, either way. The irony of your former group name and what he just did isn't lost on me, either," Eden told her, looking down at his hands.

After a pause, the woman sighed faintly. "Worse and worse. The Ravens, though...I know what you mean about chimeras now."

"Chimeras?" a familiar—and unwelcome—voice asked in cold curiosity. Both looked up to see Fuhito just stepping into the room. He finished entering and shut the door behind himself as he moved over to stand at the bars to Eden's cage. "I'm aware you have detailed knowledge of the arrays and how to use them, but I don't know the term 'chimeras'."

"The Ravens are a mix of an animal or a monster and a human. Mixing two things like that together using the arrays is called a chimera," Eden told him, willing to answer because the man was already doing it, even if he didn't have a name for it.

"I see," Fuhito blinked, then tipped his head to the side. "Your people—your village—they frequently do such things for you to be so aware of it."

"Not true," the blond Turk replied, pain flashing across his face as he remembered Nina. "There were people who did, a small number of them, and they were killed for the crime they committed by doing it. One of them was a man who did it to his wife and daughter, a daughter who once called me 'big brother', until she was made into _that thing_ , and was in such a state of agony that she just sat there and let a man kill her. The thing you don't seem to get is that we can 'be aware of things' without actively _doing them_."

The Wutain's lips curled in a faint, smirking smile. "That's such a waste. If you had become angry, I'd have thought you were lying to me, though. It's a pity you didn't do more to develop those things. Well, I'm not here for that at the moment. I want to know how best to lay out the array to summon Zirconaide—thank you for bringing all the shards right to me, by the way—first and foremost. You will tell me, won't you, Turk?"

"Why in the world would I want to help you kill Felicia faster?" Eden asked in reply with a glare.

The smirk on Fuhito's face was frightening in that moment as he said, "Because you won't like the result of refusing."

"I don't like a lot of results of a lot of things," the Turk answered, feeling the hair on the back of his neck rise. "Doesn't mean I'm going to be so foolish as to destroy the world just to spare myself some pain in the moment."

Something black and shadowy rose off Fuhito's body and shot at Eden, spearing his right leg just above the knee—and making him cry out in agony as he felt both excruciating pain like burning and a sudden influx of knowledge in disjointed parts and with missing pieces. There were even tiny flashes of memories, small sparks so brief he almost missed them appearing, and he was never able to see one clearly enough for long enough to recognize anything.

 _What the Hell?_

Gritting his teeth, Eden forced the pain under control, searching his mind for what the shadow could be. It wasn't one of the beings like 'Father', but the black hands which came from the Gate couldn't literally attack like that. At the same time, it was something which accessed the Gate, or had at one time accessed it, because it was transmitting and imprinting familiar knowledge in his mind. He was stymied. Over and over again, he asked himself what it was, trying to ignore the pain—which was just going on and on and on...

A flash of a child's drawing (he thought it could have been of a family) appeared long enough for him to grasp the general 'what', and a thought suddenly came to him about the Gate, Truth, and the 'prices' people had to pay to accomplish something.

It was possible that something Truth or the Gate had claimed became imbued with knowledge from the Gate, then Fuhito somehow got his hands on it (maybe with help from those two Wutain criminals?), and it attached to his body. It could even be someone's soul who had been sacrificed, rather than something like the insides of Teacher's body or the Bastard's eyes. How many times had a soul or a piece of a soul been corrupted by being present at the Gate or used in a transmutation? It could even have been floating around in that space for millennium.

 _How long was the fucking pain going to go on?_

He'd have been in much worse shape if he wasn't so desensitized to pain from his auto-mail, but this was far from pleasant, and he was sure it was approaching ten minutes now, with that thing still stuck in his leg.

Vaguely, he heard Felicia shout at Fuhito, "Stop it! That's enough, he won't be able to answer you—even if he _wanted_ to—if you cause too much pain!"

"He's nowhere near his threshold," Fuhito replied mildly.

Near it or not, the blond was still in a whole lot of pain, and he would have much preferred to end it. Suddenly, an array flashed into his mind, and he knew it was a long shot—he'd have to be quick to finish the process—but he could probably get Fuhito to help him with a way to save Felicia. He wasn't entirely sure what the result would be, but they were running out of time, and Fuhito was reckless enough to push ahead without his help—before anyone got there to help them. If there was any chance he could get Fuhito to actually use the array which had just shown itself in his mind, it would begin the process of merging and summoning Zirconaide, and with his ability to get free, he'd be able to activate the other half needed to properly finish the process.

A long shot he had to take _now_ , not later.

But he also couldn't give in too soon, or Fuhito would be suspicious.

Gritting his teeth again, Eden felt his body start twitching, even against his will. That was a bad sign. He hissed, but gave no other sign of his pain, and vaguely heard the man give an impressed whistle. Well, Genesis and Shelke had gone through much worse pain than this with no end in sight and no actual way to stop it. He could wait, he _had_ to wait. Not too long, just for the right time. He wasn't sure why, but he was pretty sure Fuhito would have to stop sooner or later—he'd have to wait at least until then.

It was a long wait which felt a lot longer than it actually was. Of course, pain was known to distort one's perception of time, too.

Finally, it stopped and the shadowy thing was pulled from his leg, letting him roll onto his side as he breathed hard and trembled. A glance at Fuhito showed him panting, meaning the thing took quite a bit of energy for him to use, especially to maintain for an extended time. Felicia looked pale and drawn, her face stony but her eyes full of fear and pain for him.

"So, are you ready to talk?" Fuhito asked after a few minutes, when he'd recovered from his own bout of exhaustion.

"Paper...and pen..." Eden muttered, deliberately allowing both Fuhito and Felicia to think he was only partially aware. His leg actually still hurt with a burning pain, but it was much lessened. In a way, the burning was probably a good thing—it should have sealed the wound and prevented infection.

"Eden, no!" Felicia gasped softly.

Fuhito chuckled and left. Soon after, he returned, opened the cage door, put the pen in the blond's hand, and put the paper under that same hand. He also used one finger to hold the paper down as Eden drew out the array which had appeared in his mind, the one which would look like it was doing what Fuhito wanted, from the perspective of a novice. When Eden finished and went limp, the Wutain left the cage, relocked the door, and left the room with a spring in his step.

Looking up slowly, he saw the woman looking down, sorrow shadowing her gaze and resignation emanating from her.

"Felicia," he said softly. She gave her head a shake, so he said, "I'm not so foolish I'd really give him the way to kill you faster, you know." He then drew in a sharp breath as his wound gave a sharp, painful pull. "Damn, that thing hurts, though..."

Her gaze lifted to his as she asked in confusion, "But that array...?"

"It will look to a novice like it's doing what he wants it to. It isn't. I can activate the other half. Without the other half, it'll rebound on him before it can complete its process," Eden explained. "I'm not entirely sure what a rebound will do to you, but it shouldn't kill or maim you. Right now, I'm going for a long shot, and I'm not completely certain what the final result will be, but I'm sure it won't include your death because that's a set of arrays meant for merging and restoration—to repair what was broken without harm to anything else. It takes a lot of elements Genesis and I have been working on to fix your issue, so it has a very good chance of working beneficially."

Felicia was silent for a minute before she asked, "Does that mean you never actually lost your mental faculties from the pain—you just tricked him into thinking you had?"

"Yeah," he agreed in mild amusement, closing his eyes to rest while they waited for Fuhito to get back.

"...How? The kind of pain he was causing you..."

"I have a high pain tolerance threshold thanks to my auto-mail. That actually began to approach the limit of what the outfitting caused me, only because it went on so long, not because it was so painful in itself. Don't worry so much about me, or about yourself. I'm not just going to sacrifice you, or anyone, if I can help it. He just needed to believe he'd gotten to me so he'd use the array I gave him without questioning it."

Her eyes closed as she ducked her head and quietly told him, "I hope it won't take you too long to recover from that wound, though. Your only benefit is that it isn't bleeding. I could smell hints of burning flesh, like cauterizing."

"Yeah, felt like that, too. By the way—you really look tired."

"He forced me to fight his Ravens until I was too exhausted to fight him. He's been keeping me awake since then—probably almost three days between then and now, on the way here and since I've been here."

"Hmmm. That's no good. Could you sleep now?"

"Maybe, but with what he's preparing to do, I'm not sure I want to try."

There was a moment of silence, then Eden asked with a faint grin, "Is it still April first?"

"Yes," she replied, sounding puzzled.

"Back home, April first was also known as 'April Fool's Day'. Looks like the joke's going to be on him. (1) And Felicia, sleeping is probably your best option so he thinks you've completely given up."

The woman gave a faint chuckle, then a small sigh as she muttered, "I _really am_ tired..." Silence fell, and shortly after, her breathing evened out in sleep.

Fuhito returned shortly after that, gave a snort at what he thought were his two sleeping captives, and began working on laying out the array Eden had given him. It took him almost an hour to finish, then he left again, only to return shortly thereafter. He moved Felicia soon after his second return, and Eden stirred and sat up to watch Fuhito lay her in the middle of the array, his expression completely blank. Fuhito then made the mistake of putting his back to Eden as he crouched to activate the array, which had the four shards of Zirconaide clustered around the woman's body.

With Fuhito's back turned, Eden had the time to alchemically sever all four chains binding him and was already at the cage bars, dissolving two of them into powder so he could slip out of the cage, as the man activated the array. His leg hurt like Hell, but he put that out of his mind so he could jump into the middle of the active array with Felicia (who was stirring at the energy flow), put his hands together, and put them down on her. He vaguely saw Fuhito gasp in shock, but as soon as he activated the second half of the array, the room (their vision, rather) turned white.

Felicia screamed once, more like a sound of shock than of pain, then seemed to dissolve out from under his hands, and the sound of bending, tearing, and snapping metal and rock came to him. The light began to clear as cold dropped around him, and he quickly looked up—to see a being which resembled Felicia, and not. Her hair had flared out into curved, wing-like forms with three distinct 'feathers', growing much longer than it had been, there were some streaks of brown and silver running over her skin, and she had gained bladed spikes in several places on her body. Two protruded from her shoulder blades, pointed downward, six which also pointed downward had formed a skirt of blades around her legs, anchored to a brown, belt-like device at her waist, and two more linked to her hands, similar to lances. Her eyes also glowed sliver.

Despite those changes to her, she was still obviously Felicia, and was even about the same size she had always been, with the same clothes she had been wearing, and even the same coloring for the most part. She blinked, then looked down at herself, then at Eden—and finally, at Fuhito.

"What just happened?" the Wutain gasped, then gave his head a shake as he laughed. "Well, what are you waiting for, Zirconaide? Go destroy the world, as you've been wanting to for so long!"

" _I do not serve you,_ " the being replied, its voice similar to those of the Summons. Her gaze moved back to Eden as she added, " _You have upheld your promise, Ancient Sentinel. This was—an unexpected method for such to occur, yet it has succeeded in both tasks you wished to accomplish—to restore me and to save me. This I say because I am both Zirconaide and the woman Felicia, much as Chaos is also his host._ " There was a pause and a nod. " _Find shelter, Ancient Sentinel, before the cold becomes harmful to you. I have yet a task to fulfill._ "

A moment later, there was a bright flash of light, then he somehow felt like he was completely alone. When his eyes cleared, Felicia was gone—and so was Fuhito, the only evidence that he had ever been there being the pyreflies floating around and the odd, shadow substance left behind. At the shadow's feet were his Materia, bracers, and weapons—Fuhito had apparently had them on him. He stared at the shadow for several long moments, still trying to work out what it _was_ , but then he reached out to brush his fingers over it cautiously.

What he felt was a soul which was shattered and in agony, a soul which reminded him of a child—a child like Nina.

Tears filled Eden's eyes as he whispered to the shadowed soul, "I can only save you by dissolving you."

He felt a response of pleading for an ending, a feeling so abstract that the only reason he knew it for what it was—was because he now realized there were limits people had to what they could take, and that they had a right to request death. Because Zirconaide/Felicia had left the shadow unharmed, he knew that soul wasn't evil, so it fell to him to repair the damage it had suffered. He thought first of using it as a catalyst to repair his leg, then gave his head a shake and collected his gear and Materia to return them to his person while he thought of another way to help it. One of the Materia was Cleanse, causing him to recall the arrays for Purify which Genesis had used on him.

It could work, couldn't it?

He held his hand forward as he imprinted the arrays in his mind which activated Purify, and they formed around his wrist as he sent the emotionally cleansing energy into the shadowed soul. From within it, light sparked and began to reach out tendrils to the outer edges of the soul, until the entire dark essence had turned to light. The cast ended, so Eden lowered his hand and watched as the soul began breaking apart into pyreflies, released back to Minerva and the Lifestream, where it would be able to finish healing. He wasn't aware of the tears running down his cheeks.

Then, there was some sort of pulling sensation and everything went dark.

FoW

In Midgar, Tseng stood facing the President from across his desk as the man studied him, one finger tapping on the arm of his chair. Since the Turk had entered the room and asked what he could do for the man, President Shinra had been just looking at him like that. It was eerie on more than one level, but he showed nothing to the older man, as showing his discomfort would give the man too much control of the situation. He quickly ran through a check-list of all the things they had done or were doing, knowing by doing so that there were at least two things the President could have found out about, but that left the question of what the man wanted with him.

"Heidegger and Hojo both betrayed me, and they had both been my strongest supporters," the President commented suddenly.

"Yes, Sir," Tseng agreed. "With all due respect, however, Heidegger was heavily influenced by mind-altering drugs and Hojo's sanity has been suspect since Jenova was found."

"Of course," the blond man agreed. "Scarlet, also a strong supporter of mine, was murdered by a man your Turks had been sent to Corel to find."

"Fuhito has proven far more problematic than we anticipated, and even escaped from Crescent Unit—they don't let go of their prey easily," the Wutain Turk filled in. "We have put into place a sting to deal with him, which is actively in progress at this moment."

The President snorted at the words. "Hojo's monsters killed Hollander and Palmer, the last of my supporters."

"We had absolutely no control over them, though—as I noted in my report—Hojo deliberately released them in the Labs with the intent to kill everyone there."

"Tseng, of the original company executives, who is left?"

"...Only Reeve Tuesti."

"Only. Only a man who wants nothing more than to develop everything which has no use or value. He doesn't support me, he'll support anyone who lets him tinker, and him giving that toy cat of his to Rufus tells me he's more likely to support my son than me, even while _I'm_ still in power."

"I wouldn't know, but my impression of him is only that he doesn't like to create arguments for any reason."

"That's true. However, Rufus is putting a huge amount of funds into the Slums lately. I know very well you know he's doing it. One of the things he's funding is a factory run by Gaia's Refuge, who are most closely attached to him, Reeve, you, and Lazard, and they're producing an independent power supply."

"While I'm aware of Rufus funding them and the factory, I don't know what the factory produces. Perhaps Eden knows?"

The President suddenly surged to his feet and slammed his hands down on the desk as he yelled, "Damned it, Tseng, why is the entire Hades-forsaken world acting against me? Why are you all unanimously trying to take my power away from me?"

Tseng blinked, but the man yanked open a drawer and pulled out a remote with only three buttons on it, the most prominent a large, red one in the middle.

He pushed the button before Tseng could move, then smirked and said, "Fine, if you want to take the world away from me, you can have it—as you burn in Ifrit's Hellfire!"

The Wutain blinked, then turned to stare towards the window as he heard explosions and a strange, metallic shattering sound. A moment later, he ran to the window—and stared in horror at what he saw.

Below him, the entire Upper Plate was shaking and beginning to collapse. He could do absolutely nothing to stop it. In the distance to the east, he saw a spark of red light and realized with a sense of horror that Kalm had also just gone up in flames. Had the President wired the _entire world_ to explode?

Tseng felt numb at the realization of what they had missed.

He had no further time to ponder the situation as he felt a pulling sensation and his vision went dark.


	36. Interlude--Star Journey

**A/N:** This is a transitional piece I really felt needed to be included, but didn't fit directly with the story line.

Interlude—Star Journey

It was surreal.

She felt like she'd been caught between awareness and unawareness for a long, long time.

First, she'd felt Minerva weeping sadly. Over what, she wasn't entirely sure. It was a sorrow which transferred to her very strongly, and she felt like she also wanted to cry, but somehow, she wasn't able to. That left her hovering in that state with only her soul to try to release the feelings.

Stars.

Even through that sorrow, she became aware of stars, but they were strange, like they were passing by fast enough for her to notice. And they were all around her, not just above her, like they should have been.

Just then, she also realized it wasn't cold—but hadn't she just been in the far north as the group looked for the facility Eden had been taken to by that Raven?

 _What?_

Right then, she felt Minerva focus on her, becoming aware that she wasn't asleep. Wait, why was she supposed to be asleep?

The mental question produced amusement from Minerva, and resulted in a surprising response: _:The journey will be long, Beloved Child, so all of you little children were meant to sleep through it.:_

 _:What journey?:_ Aeris asked in reply, feeling confused.

A sigh reached her, then the entity replied, _:My world, your world, is no more. The damage done to it in those last moments...it could not withstand. The damage shattered the crust.:_

 _:Why? How?:_ the fifteen-year-old asked in distress.

There was a sensation as though of a head shaking with confusion, not denial. _:I do not know. Fire shoved the land apart. That was as much as I saw. Too many, all at once, and so little time to take what few survivors there were. There was no chance to choose, just take all who yet lived. Most of the survivors came out of Midgar or the wilds, as those were not destroyed in that single instant, there was a delay before the death came. Those who needed to be saved have been—they were all very, very lucky to have been in places where the destruction was not immediate. Still, some good people were lost. Many of them.:_

 _:Who would do such a thing?:_ Aeris asked in horror as she realized what had happened. Or at least the result of it. But fires shattering the crust had to have been explosives. Were there really enough explosives in the world which were powerful enough to completely destroy it? (1)

Again, she had the sensation of Minerva shaking her head in confusion, having no answer.

 _:My brothers!:_ she suddenly gasped. When Minerva sent her a blank sense, clearly asking who she meant, Aeris asked, _:Tseng and Eden. Um, you know Eden as your Ancient Sentinel, but I don't know about Tseng. He's the Wutain with that stone on his forehead...:_ she offered, focusing on an image of him to send to Minerva.

 _:Oh, my,:_ Minerva seemed to blink as she examined the image of the man. _:That must be repaired. Ah, Holy Death, that is his essence. His mother will be proud. Both he and my Ancient Sentinel are safely within the Omega body.:_

 _:Holy Death?:_ the brown haired girl asked in confusion. Then it occurred to her that she'd never before had such clear communication with Minerva, and asked, _:How can I suddenly talk with you so clearly?:_

 _:You shall know why he would be called Holy Death later,:_ the planetary entity replied, sounding amused. _:And you hear me so clearly now because you are directly within the core of my energy.:_

 _:...So...this is like when we visited you in the Northern Crater and where your core was below Banora?:_

 _:Indeed.:_

Looking outward again, Aeris found herself seeing the stars passing by again, and realized it was because they were traveling in the Omega body away from their own world. How long had it been? Was there a way to know? She remembered that Minerva had trouble with 'time' the way Cetra and humans perceived it, so it would be extremely difficult to assess, even with Minerva's memory of the journey to that point—there were no actual milestones to count by in a sea of blackness and stars. If everyone was in stasis, they also wouldn't age—probably a good thing, but one less point to use to count passage of time.

So why was _she_ not asleep? Had her body not been put into stasis like everyone else's? An assurance from Minerva told her she was, in fact, just as much physically in stasis as the others.

Did Minerva have any idea where they were going?

With a small tug on her mind, Aeris felt herself pulled to Minerva's awareness, where she could see and sense what the entity was operating on. She could also vaguely sense a secondary presence she associated somehow with a sleeping infant.

The first thing she noticed about what she was being shown was that Minerva was very, very old, and had actually been on two other planets before Gaia. (2) One was destroyed by natural disasters before any sentient races had come to exist, and the other had been run-down and worn-out, to a point where she had no longer been able to maintain it. The children of that world had long since left her behind, and she had just been waiting for it to release her. It had been millions of years since she had arrived on the Planet and begun terra-forming it, a task much more intensive there than on either previous world.

After assessing that, she found the method Minerva had used to choose her direction away from the Planet as it had crumbled. It was three-fold: a path away from both previous worlds, a path towards something familiar, and a new direction. The 'path towards something familiar' produced the remains of the reason for why no Cetra could hold Chaos, the meteors which hadn't been meteors and which had brought other humans there, and an awareness of something fading. While Aeris couldn't fathom 'something fading' from such a distance, she vaguely realized Minerva had chosen to go in the direction the star-ships had come from two thousand years before.

 _:Why?:_ she asked the planetary entity. _:Won't it have its own entity, making you like Jeh-nova, an interloper?:_

 _:I have no intent to overtake or destroy, and entities such as I are able to choose companionship rather than competition,:_ Minerva replied. _:Those poor children...What they brought to us...What state would their own world be in by this time?:_

Aeris thought about the greed and suffering she'd seen in her own world, then asked, _:What if they found a better way themselves?:_

 _:Then peace between our peoples should be both possible and welcome,:_ the entity smiled. _:And if things have not gone so well, perhaps we shall be able to assist.:_

The half-Cetra couldn't help but snort in amused derision at that. _:How can we possibly help them when we couldn't even help ourselves?:_

 _:You underestimate the good done in the last months,:_ Minerva replied in amusement. _:It had been assisting far more than those immediately around you, and many people's eyes were opened to the need for a change. They shall be more receptive to any changes the Prodigal Son of the Star-Travelers would bring about. And while we may also be in a state of learning, that does not negate the experience and knowledge we may bring to a world in a worse state.:_

Aeris pondered that for a few moments before realizing there was truth to the statement. Either way, it could turn out well or poorly, but after everything many of the people of the Planet had gone through, there was a better chance it would turn out well. As long as the people who had caused the problem weren't going to come out of stasis with everyone on the Omega.

 _:Can you sense who was a person who caused harm and one who didn't?:_ she asked suddenly. When Minerva asked with a feeling why it mattered, she explained, _:If the same people who were causing so much harm are released with all the average and good people, won't that just create all the same problems again?:_

After a thoughtful pause, the entity agreed, _:I am able to seek out their essences to determine that, and now that there is a proper purification array, resolve the issue, either to remove them entirely or give them another chance. There is one who is within the Omega who my Earthen Champion had intended to eliminate due to his greed. That judgment shall need to be fulfilled. Others—may yet have a chance for salvation. Hmm...perhaps a grand purifying would be best for all of my little children...:_

Feeling the energies of said purification flow around her was a strange sensation, but it was somehow comforting. It was like a gentle cleansing of all tension, stress, worry—it eased, and it healed, and it made small changes to make things easier for them. For a long time, she just basked in the sensation, until she opened her eyes again and sought out what was beyond the Omega.

Still just stars.

She had no idea how long it had been, but if she was honest with herself, time actually had no meaning in her current state. Even though she kept trying to apply it, there was no real reason to—since everything was just in a holding state exactly the way it was, there was nothing to actively assess, either. Sleep also didn't seem to be a factor for her apparently very energetic soul, so she mostly just let her mind wander, seeking out the essences of those also on the Omega to see who she could find. It didn't take much to find people she knew—Felicia, Eden, Genesis, Tseng, others—and from them, she could check on others. A few times, she came across a blank space, showing where someone had once been, but then had since been cleansed.

Then she thought to look for Dark Nation, and found no trace of the Blood Taste. Worriedly, she looked for Nanaki and Deneh—and found them with many others of their kind ( _What?_ )—then checked for Libby, Stray Hope, and Cait Sith, holding her breath against tears. After all, they were robots, not people, so would they have been taken?

And then her spirit-form jaw fell open in shock.

When Minerva sent her a questioning feeling, she asked, _:How were you able to take the robots, but not Dark Nation?:_

A blank came back from Minerva before she replied, _:I took all those of sentience and free will I could reach. What robots do you mean?:_

 _:Like Cait Sith, and Libby! How were you able to take those robots with you?:_

Again, there was a blank from Minerva as she asked, _:Those are objects created by human hands?:_ A pause followed, then she replied, _:They are as sentient as you, Beloved Child. They are, to me, living beings, little children of my world.:_

 _:Whoa...I have_ got _to tell Reeve he found a way to create life without sex or birth from a woman's body...:_ Aeris said with reverence.

At Minerva's amusement, Aeris promptly ignored her and instead amused herself by pretending she was petting and cuddling the furry collection of robots. As sad as it was that Dark Nation hadn't been able to go with them—Rufus would be hurt to find that out—at least he'd still have Stray Hope.

Some time later, she finished coddling them, then kept going on her search of those in the Omega body. When she finished, she closed her eyes to rest for awhile, then felt something change and opened them again. Looking around showed her they were slowing down, and the reason why was because they were rapidly approaching a planet with a sun nearby—most likely their intended destination. At agreement from Minerva, she watched curiously as the Omega slowed and turned to drop into the planet's atmosphere feet-first. It was an atmosphere writhing with dark, angry clouds, leaving her with a foreboding sense.

It became rather warm, a sensation she felt because it transmitted through her physical body, and she was rather thankful their current stasis wasn't due to cold, otherwise it would have been broken. There was an almost-aura of fiery heat surrounding the Omega body, but it didn't hurt—not Minerva, and not anything safely inside the Omega body. It looked like they were going to land over open ocean, and she wondered if that meant their landing would create a tidal wave and destroy a lot.

Before she could ponder where they would land, she blinked as a brilliant, golden light shot upwards—and diverted from its path to flow over the Omega. There was a sensation of worry from Minerva as she 'caught' the energy, and Aeris suddenly felt something like another mind, another entity, close to her, though it seemed like a child to Minerva's middle-aged woman.

What had _that_ been?

She had no further time to ponder it as the Omega hit the water, displacing it as it descended to the ocean floor—then shoved upward suddenly as many, many brilliant, white-green lights spread out over the area. The black, roiling clouds began dissipating.

For the first time in who knew how long, Aeris felt her mind rest and fall into the darkness of sleep.

 **Notes:**

(1) Keep in mind that Gaia is a very small planet which already couldn't even have sustained itself without Minerva. In this circumstance, causing it too much damage, all over the land-space and all at once, could feasibly tear it apart. After all, if everyone missed the tells, the President wired EVERY town and village Eden's been to so they would blow up within seconds of one another, and a bunch besides that. Shinra was a little less successful in Wutai, mostly because they were still mostly loyal to Godo, not him, and money isn't a huge factor for Wutains—but that doesn't exclude Wutai from this destruction. This very, very small planet couldn't hold up against that.

(2) Obviously, this part of Minerva's history is made-up, but I thought it would suit how she presents herself.


	37. 34-Arrival Pending Battle

Arrival Pending Battle

Stars.

That was the first thing Eden saw as he woke from—whatever it had been that had caused the pulling sensation and knocked him out.

He was laying on his back somewhere fairly warm (and wet enough for the moisture to soak into his clothes from below), even outdoors, staring up at stars which—didn't really look familiar, like either Amestris' or Gaia's. On second thought, a lot of what he'd first taken as stars looked more like pyreflies, green-hued white bits of energy which were slowly falling to the ground or following definite streams to other locations. However, even accounting for the pyreflies didn't make the stars any more familiar. Also, by turning his head a bit to one side, he could see what looked like tropical trees similar to what had been in Costa del Sol. To the other side...was a massive, gray-brown, rock which vaguely resembled someone's head and shoulders?

Several people near him suddenly swore, some more vividly than others, but one in particular was very close to him and quieter than the rest, a sound which was a mix of stunned and horrified. He, himself, had found his pain numbed, despite the memory of the child's soul being raw—all the rest felt distant and far away. At that point, he had to opt to force the memory away, because something was _very_ wrong just then.

Drawing in a sharp breath, he sat up suddenly and actively looked around. First, he took note of the massive 'rock', which had an oddly humanoid and almost living appearance, then of the rest of his surroundings. Tropical, as he'd thought, but the ground was especially moist and it looked like there was a lot of scattered, rusted mechanical debris around. Water wasn't far away, but the only known fresh water was coming from the 'rock', as the rest seemed to be ocean waves on a beach, and there was a strong smell of saltwater in the air. The ground was cracked and broken, though grass and flowers were growing—rapidly—in the...meadow(?)...they were apparently in.

At realizing the state of the ground, he also took note of the people scattered around nearby (actually over quite a wide area, given the number of them), what looked like SOLDIERs, Turks, Guardian Forces, Gaia's Refuge, Academy students in the combat classes, and other mercenaries or combat-trained people, who would have been scattered all around the world. Including about four dozen mountain lions of the Moto Tribe, even Deneh and Nanaki, but about half of them were colored blue or indigo. Or mixed variants of red, orange, blue, and indigo. (1) Wherever they had come from—it looked like people would have to adapt to them quickly. Nearest Eden looked to be the other Turks and his traveling companions—and several other brown haired men and women who had appearances very similar to Aeris'.

A familiar voice yelping, "Nice kitty!" and rapid movement nearby made him look over to see Reno scrambling back from an obviously dazed blue Moto Tribal, who just gazed at Reno in confusion. He looked rather silly doing something like a crab walk, but with his belly up.

Laughing in spite of himself, Eden said, "Reno, Moto Tribals don't usually attack people unless you attack them, first."

The blue's head swiveled to look at him, and she—by her voice—asked in even more confusion, "You know of us?" Her voice had a lilt to it which Eden had never heard from Deneh or Nanaki, but it was obvious they spoke the same language.

"It talks!" Reno shouted in shock, making the blue female turn to glare at him.

"Shut up, you moron..." Kunzel's familiar voice groaned as he slowly pushed himself to a sitting position not too far from Reno. "They're just as sentient as you and me, so—get over it." His gaze moved to Eden as he asked, "You're okay after Fuhito snatched you, though?"

Reno blinked, then blinked again as the blue lion got up, turned her back to him, and padded over to where Eden sat to face him. "What?" the red haired man asked in confusion.

"Why do you know us?" she asked Eden again, ignoring Reno for the time being.

"So these would be the 'friendly cats' our Flower Girl told me about, I'm guessing?" Tseng's voice asked tiredly from beside him as he sat while rubbing his head—where the dark stone there had turned red.

"They are," Eden agreed. "Deneh and Nanaki would be the two you heard about—those are the orange and red pair right over there," he added as he motioned to the two, who were tucked between Genesis and Aeris. The blue lion with a burning tail tip looked in their direction at the motion, and they were pushing themselves up as they stared at her in equal shock. "Speaking of, how did you lot survive the avalanche the Ravens dropped on you?" he asked Kunzel.

"What avalanche?" Tseng asked as he looked up at the travelers worriedly.

"That would be thanks to Aeris, Carbuncle, Phoenix, and Atomos," Genesis answered tiredly. "Apparently, Atomos is mainly just a giant maw which swallowed the whole damned avalanche."

"...Now I know why we were so hesitant to call for him," Eden commented wryly. His gaze then moved back to the blue female as she looked back at him. "Deneh and Nanaki were staying in Cosmo Canyon as the 'Guardians of the Cosmo Candle', or as Minerva called them, 'Children of the Cosmo Candle'. We've been traveling with them for awhile. I'm called Eden. What's your name?"

She blinked at him, then sighed and said, "So a few of the ones who chose to stay on the surface survived." Her gaze turned to the two again for a moment, then returned to Eden as she said, "I am Veta. There seems to be a large number of Cetra Sentinels here, and only the Healers most skilled in combat and in Healing. I assume that girl by the two Moto children is also skilled in combat?"

Kunzel laughed out-right at the question, saying, "She's been fighting in the Northern Crater. I'd say she's pretty damned strong."

Veta's head spun to look at him in shock for a moment, then turned back to Eden, only to see him looking at Tseng as the blond Turk said, "The stone on your forehead is red, did you know?"

The Wutain blinked, then reached up to touch it, frowning as he said, "It hasn't been that color since..." He drifted off, then looked around at their surroundings—and suddenly shoved himself to his feet to look around, his gaze worried and his stance tense. Loudly, he called out, "How many of you are awake?" His tone demanded an answer.

Most began giving agreements or sitting up, and after the discussion they'd heard about the Moto Tribe, they weren't as quick to back away from the lions as Reno had been.

Sephiroth, who wasn't too far from the group, called over to Tseng with, "Did you see the Plate explode and fall, Tseng?" He looked highly disturbed.

"I did," the Wutain agreed tensely. "And I could have sworn I saw Kalm go up, too." Eden—and everyone else who hadn't been in Midgar—turned to stare at him in shocked horror.

Then a new voice added, "I saw Bone Village go up." Everyone turned to stare at Felicia, who actually looked rather disoriented as she stared down at her hands in confusion. Beside her lay a brown sword threaded through with silver, rather than her usual silver sword.

"Wutai as well," another new voice added, and the others looked over to see Godo with them, on the far side of where most of the Moto Tribals had landed. "Not entirely, but enough to have destroyed more than half of our lands."

"So what happened?" Angeal asked, gaze on Tseng as he saw the Wutain's expression turn furious.

"That bloody _greedy asshole_ wired every major town and city _in the world_ to explode!" Tseng snarled, and everyone jolted and yanked back in shock and horror.

"I beg your pardon, but who—did what—to make the populated areas of the world explode?" Veta asked in confusion, her gaze unsettled.

"President Shinra, the owner of the Shinra Electric Power Company, who held the position of the world power," Tseng told her. "He lost most of his most powerful supporters, two of those because they were clinically insane and tried to kill him, too, and the others were killed either by those two or by another enemy we were facing—that's Fuhito, who was mentioned earlier. He also found out Rufus, his son, started funding an alternate power supply to the Mako Reactors which were systematically draining the energy out of the Lifestream. In retaliation, he planted bombs in the cities and towns so he could blow them all up at approximately the same time, just by pushing a button. He did that right in front of me, which would mean he decided _I_ was to blame for his loss of power, so made me watch while he destroyed everything."

"...Wouldn't that mean the _President_ was clinically insane by the time he did it?" Balto asked suddenly from nearby, making the others look at him. "He got paranoid and began _finding_ enemies where there weren't any, and realized how much the world had changed right under his nose, so retaliated against that by—basically taking the stance 'If I can't have it, no one can.' At least, that's what I would assume was the case. But if he destroyed the world, then where are _we_ right now? By the stars, I don't think it's the Planet." When everyone's gazes turned uncomprehending, he pointed up at the sky and asked, "Does that layout of stars actually look _at all_ familiar to those of you who star-gaze? Freyra, you navigate by the stars—can you navigate by _these_ ones?"

Freyra blinked in surprise, then shook her head. "I can't find the stars I'm used to seeing, not in the north or the south of the Planet."

"So...should I hazard a guess and say we should scout out the lands around here so we know what kind of land space we have to work with?" Genesis asked. "We've been dropped here with the things we had on us at the time, but that's about it—speaking of, I need to get out of this coat!" With that, he shucked off the winter coat he'd been using in the north. Eden had already been stripped of his by Fuhito, but the rest of the group also began stripping off their winter coats, most of them giving sighs of relief once it was off.

Tseng rubbed his eyes and said, "We've been dropped here with no supplies, food, extra clothing, or shelter. For those with guns, we have limited ammo, for those with magic, a very small supply of Ethers to replenish it with. There are no true 'civilians' in this group, only combat personnel and Healers. By what we know of one of the entities of the Planet, this _isn't_ the sort of group Minerva, even in her Omega form—" He paused to motion at the rock by them. "—would have left us with—unless she was _expecting_ us to be in combat _very_ soon. Sephiroth, Genesis, could you two please scout our current space and see if you can find an enemy for us? We'll start going through the debris to see if we can find any useful items in it, water-logged or not."

"Sure," Genesis agreed, and Sephiroth nodded.

They both called on their wings—and everyone stared at them in shock as they realized two things. The wings, which had previously been oddly small for their height, were now the proper size required (each wing was about their height), and their energy wing was now visible to them. It was still apparently made of energy and had a ghostly quality to it, but the energy forming it had become tangible enough to produce the form of a glowing wing in white with the same design as their physical wing. They traded confused looks, then each eyed their own energy wing for a minute.

"Let us scout the territory first, and deal with this new development at a later time," Sephiroth said, and Genesis gave a nod. They both took to the air, heading in opposite directions.

"We urgently need to scout," Tseng sighed. "And salvage. We'll start nearest us and work outward from there. Who takes responsibility for the Academy students we've been left with?"

"My first thought is to let them take orders from whoever they feel most inclined to take orders from, as long as they're taking them from someone and not just being left alone to work things out themselves," a familiar voice put in, making the others all look at the speaker—to see a wryly amused Verdot, or Veld as most of the Turks still knew him as. "If they were in classes with the intent to join the Turks, they can take orders from you, Tseng, while if they were inclined towards SOLDIER, they can take orders from the General and the Commanders. If they had another goal in mind, they can turn to either Emperor Godo or Felicia and Shears of Gaia's Refuge."

Various Academy students began trading looks, but it was Elena—Riona—in her new Turk uniform who said, "I think that's the best option, and will probably get you the best results in capability and adherence to orders, too." Several Academy students voiced agreement to that once they saw a familiar face agree to it.

Tseng looked around at them, then gave a nod and said, "Fine, since I know the SOLDIER Commanders will remember you don't have your infusions yet, all of you move over to whichever group suits you best, and be prepared to take orders from whoever heads the group. Turks will primarily be scouting and salvaging everything we can, joining whatever battle is coming as needed. The Guardians—tend more towards scouting than salvaging, so will be relying on your accuracy in reports. Gaia's Refuge is a mixed group. SOLDIER—Angeal, Sora, what are your general plans?"

"Once Sephiroth and Genesis get back, our best bet will probably be guarding the perimeter," Angeal answered, and Sora nodded—ignoring the stunned stares many of the Wutains were sending her way.

"Good. I also feel it would be prudent for the random combatants to temporarily take orders from the heads of those groups, otherwise we won't be a very cohesive unit, even just for getting a feel for the terrain," Tseng agreed. He turned to Rufus to ask, "And which group will you look to for orders, Mr. Shinra?"

Rufus glared, but didn't have time to answer as Sephiroth and Genesis returned, landing almost right in front of Tseng. They began drawing in the sandy soil with their fingers, giving contours for the area they were in, then sat down and leaned back a bit from what they'd drawn. Sephiroth picked up a near-by stick and said, "Group leaders, join us—before anyone leaves the area."

Felicia and Shears rose and moved over to the two, Tseng stayed where he was, but Reno and Verdot joined him. Angeal, Sora, and Zack moved up closer, gathered around Genesis. Godo walked calmly right through the middle of the group of Moto Tribals (which earned him a lot of respect from nearly everyone there, even the Moto Tribals themselves) to join them, followed warily by a couple of his Captains. Others also joined them, Aeris first hugging Tseng, then moving to sit with her arm linked through Eden's, while Veta and one of the Cetra-looking men also joined the 'something-planning-council'. They could have taken it as a 'war council' of a sort, except that they all felt this would be an event happening only once on such a scale as they were having to work with right then, and only once in such dire circumstances.

Hopefully.

"You are?" Godo asked the brown haired Cetra man.

"Nominally the coordinator of the Cetra—mostly Healers—who appeared here," the man replied. "My name is Thaldras."

Nodding, Tseng agreed, "Fine. We're ready, Sephiroth. What did you and Genesis find in your initial scouting?" Everyone else in the area began pressing in close around the group of 'leaders' to hear what they had to say.

Sephiroth used the stick to point at the smallest oval he had drawn in the middle of the map and said, "This is the 'Omega Rock' next to us. We are approximately here." He moved the stick to point at a spot west of the rock if they assumed he had oriented south towards him. The stick moved to follow the wavy-lined sort-of circle he and Genesis had drawn and said, "This line roughly denotes the shore of the island we happen to be on. We were unable to see other land in the darkness; however, given the size of the Omega Rock, the corresponding estimated size of this island is approximately two kilometers in diameter, though it seems to be slightly longer on this line—until we know more of the world, we will not know which direction that would be."

He paused before pointing at the jagged line he and Genesis had drawn close around the edges of the island and said, "This is a ridge much as we know of at the Northern Crater, though it is close around the island's edge. It also apparently is our only shield against a large number of oceanic and semi-oceanic monsters currently, which are attempting to climb or break the ridge." Genesis nodded at the words, but didn't interrupt Sephiroth. "Should there be other monsters, I do not know, but they would likely be airborne to reach us, and more oceanic ones can be expected to join the ones already here.

"Much of the island base seems to be covered in tropical trees and other plants, though we have two streams of fresh water—to the far side of Omega Rock, there is a fair-sized pool of it." He pointed at the two squiggly lines running from Omega Rock to the shore with the stick, first the one they could see in their clearing, then the one on the far side of the Rock. "Regardless, our water supply is something we must use sparingly. There is little to no animal life, though many underwater plants are amongst the mix of vegetation, including seaweed and corral. Otherwise, there is the debris and little else."

"I found pretty much the same on my side," Genesis agreed, reaching over to take the stick. "But near the crater ridge over here—" he paused to mark a small 'x' on their map, "—there's an actual structure of some sort. I didn't look more closely, but I don't think it was 'just debris' because one of the things there looked like an honest-to-goodness crafted pillar."

"We'll send people to check that area, then," Tseng agreed with a nod at Genesis. "And it looks as though the SOLDIERs will be in combat fairly soon. We had best prepare for that. It seems our assumption of being troops mustered for battle was accurate."

"The big question is, why do they want in so badly?" Zack asked suddenly. "Why do they already want to kill us when we just got here?"

"And what of our civilians?" Godo asked worriedly.

Tseng turned to Aeris and asked, "What can you tell us, Aeris?"

She shook her head and said, "Omega activated, but—I guess the Planet was so small that the amount of damage the President did to the crust—broke it? I'm not completely clear on that, but all she was able to do was grab who she was able to, who wasn't dead yet, and go. A lot of the energy returned to her from the Reactors being torn apart and from all the deaths, but she was mainly performing a salvage operation, so Chaos didn't need to activate. There are still civilians in the—Omega Rock, I guess everyone's decided to call it, most of which is underground right now. But, she can't release them yet because she's sure we're about to be attacked. She needs us to protect her from things—"

The half-Cetra stopped abruptly with a puzzled frown, closing her eyes as she did. "There's—another entity on this world—the entity was about to form an Omega and leave when she arrived, but she caught what was left of 'his' energy and is—what?"

Thaldras sighed and said, "His essence was so reduced that he currently has the form of a roughly two-year-old child, but a highly intelligent one. He has told Minerva that the beings intending to destroy the Omega—not us directly, but 'us' by virtue of the fact that we are in their way—are called 'fiends', created by the souls of living beings who refused to pass on. Not all who refused to do so became fiends, only—the majority. In form, they are remarkably similar to the monsters of the Planet created by the Calamity from the Skies."

All eyes went to him for a minute before Felicia asked, "So do you know _why_ they want to destroy our Omega?"

His eyes closed, and stayed that way as he said with a slight crease in his brow, "Apparently, Minerva will cause them to move on. Her essence differs greatly from their world's entity, and her chosen path in developing our creation and our deaths does not allow them to stay intact without a great deal of willpower." His eyes opened. "There are some which will remain afterwards, as they were natural creatures of this world or exceptionally powerful fiends, but most would succumb to her stronger essence, and—if their entity is to be believed—they fear the change her over-arching awareness would bring, whether it would be good or bad. They remain too attached to their living forms."

Others in the group traded looks, but Sephiroth said, "We had best begin our operations. SOLDIERs and those who wish to take orders from myself or the Commanders, we shall begin moving to the perimeter line. With four of us, we shall each take one direction to form a perimeter and the first line of defense. First Fair, take those who are—attached to you—and join Commander Kagawa's unit. The remainder of the SOLDIER unit will be divided between Commanders Hewley and Rhapsodos and myself." He paused and faced Tseng. "The remainder of this discussion is in your hands. Join us as soon as you are able."

At Tseng's nod, he turned and walked away, leading the SOLDIERs and the other randoms taking orders from them. The group quickly began separating into four, each being directed on a particular path by one of the four SOLDIER leaders. After their separation from the gathered group, they were left with the Turks, Gaia's Refuge, the Guardian Forces, the Moto Tribe, and the Cetra, though in each of the first three groups, they had a fair number of Academy students, more with the first two than the last.

"Felicia, you're going to have to do mixed duty as a combat unit as well as many other things," Tseng commented to her.

She nodded and replied, "My unit will join yours for salvaging initially, but Shears' will take a stance similar to the SOLDIERs—they'd be the second rank of combatants."

"I'll leave you to direct them, then," he told her, and she gave a nod before picking up the sword beside her, standing, and heading back to the gathering of Gaia's Refuge with Shears. The twenty-year-old Wutain turned to look at Godo and asked, "Your preferred stance and activities?"

"In the immediate, scouting the lay of the land for dangers and beneficial features, and in battle, crowd control and running messages," Godo replied immediately. "If nothing else, speed and stealth are our strengths, and most of us developed our skills to manage enemy numbers so we have an easier time defeating them. On monsters, the technique is particularly useful, and it looks as though you have enough salvagers without adding our numbers to it—we'd just get in your way in that."

Nodding, Tseng agreed, "We'll leave you to that, then." Godo nodded and returned to where his people waited, and Tseng faced Veta and Thaldras. "What about your skills and preferred places?"

"The Moto Tribe are combat-oriented from the start," Veta replied. "We are best in defensive positions, however. That is, give us someone to protect, and we will do so, even unto death."

"You aren't allowed to be so reckless," Tseng answered her with a glare, and she blinked. "But if that's the case—Deneh and Nanaki will apparently be strong additions to your group, as long as you realize they have a great deal of combat experience in the Northern Crater." Veta looked at the pair again for a moment, then nodded, so Tseng went on, "If the Cetra are mainly Healers, they and the Academy students would be your priorities to protect. With the students joining salvage parties, you may want to have some of yours roaming and others to stay with the Healers so we have an easier time establishing a safe-zone."

"...Very well," she agreed, still looking surprised and confused by his statement about her people not being allowed to 'be so reckless'.

 **Notes:**

(1) No, I didn't just pull those two colors (blue and indigo) out of my hat or anything like that. In the wikia data, it says the original plan for Nanaki/Red XIII's time with Hojo had resulted in 'clones' of him which appeared in blue and indigo and later would have helped the group to defeat Hojo/Sephiroth/Jenova. While that plan was scrapped for the official main game of FFVII, I thought it would be an interesting twist if clones of Nanaki being those colors was part of his/the Moto Tribe's base genetic makeup.


	38. 35-Windfall

Windfall

"If we need safe-zones, our best bet is an array which acts similarly to Genesis' Limit Break," Eden put in suddenly.

"What?" Tseng asked in confusion, facing him and Aeris.

"Genesis' Limit Break forcibly attacks anything with harmful intent which enters its area. With slight modification, both he and I could make it form a barrier to keep out anything harmful without needing Materia, and the Healers could use those as their safe zones unless something happens which means we have to fight," the blond replied. "Of course, the range of each zone would be quite large if Genesis' Limit Break zone of effect is any indication—we could probably set ourselves to shield the Omega Rock at the same time."

"Except that it won't help us to lose _both_ you and Genesis on a large-scale battlefield," Ruluf put in.

"Very true!" Cissnei piped up with a small smile. "I'd rather leave two dozen of just about anyone else to protect the Healers and establish safe zones than to lose you two in battle."

"But—" Eden began with a frown.

"If we may...?" a woman's voice cut in from behind Thaldras. He turned to look behind him, then stepped aside to reveal two identical Cetra women—twins. The one on the left said, "We are Sentinels of the Cetra. If you are certain such a defensive device could be used without Materia, show us how and we should be capable of maintaining the barrier while you fight."

The other twin, the one on the right, added, "Also, as we share an additional energy between us, our range will be much larger than two unrelated individuals could produce."

"Eden, set them up with what they need, then join Reno for some salvaging," Tseng told the blond Turk, who paused, then nodded. "When the battle starts, keep up your work either until I call or send someone for you, or until you can see for yourself that we need your help."

"Got it," Eden agreed, then moved over to the two women and said, "Let's find a place where there's space for me to show you the array I mean."

They nodded and the three headed away from the group to find the space they needed. With most of the people cleared out of the immediate area, they didn't have to go far, and the three could still hear Tseng talking. He began drawing in the sandy soil with the same stick Sephiroth had used before as he listened to the rest of the discussion, both sisters watching intently as he drew.

The Wutain man said, "As for the Cetra, with you largely being our healers for the coming battle, it may be easiest for your remaining Sentinels to directly guard the barrier while your Healers are allocated to various areas of the zone. I'll leave you to organize the Healers and your Sentinels once you know what kind of zone you have to work with."

Nodding, the man said wryly, "At least you have the sense to know you have little ability to direct us when you know very little about us."

With a nod, Tseng faced Aeris and said, "You qualify as a Healer, little sister. We'll be counting on you to keep us as healed as you can."

She got up to give him a hug as she said, "You know I will." After a pause, she drew in a deep breath and stepped away from him. "But don't be reckless just because you know I'm safe, you or Eden! I'm not going to be happy if either of you gets badly hurt or dies!" She then turned to walk over to the other Cetra.

The Cetra man looked at Tseng with a raised brow. "You call her 'little sister', not a friend or an experiment?"

Shaking his head, the Wutain replied in amusement, "She's been my sister in all but blood since I was ten years old. I've been her brother in return since she was five. And Eden—well, it really only took one meeting for them to become siblings to one another."

Giving a chuckle, the older man commented, "You are one of a rare few to earn a Cetra's trust without having Cetra blood yourself, then. Congratulations." He then joined the group of Cetra to begin working with them.

With that, Tseng began splitting the Turks (thankfully, he had many more of them than just the ones from the main office) and Academy students—and Rufus, apparently—into groups which made sure all of the random students and Rufus had an experienced Turk with them. As usual, however, Rufus insisted on going with Eden, so he and Reno had to sit and wait for the blond to finish what he was doing before going anywhere. A few Academy students had also been assigned to them, but they opted to do a little exploring in the trees in the direction their group was to head in while waiting.

Since the discussion was over, Eden looked up at the sisters, noting for the first time their actual appearance. The brown of their hair and green of their eyes was a superficial pair of traits which did little but indicate they were Cetra, and just to start with differences between them, one wore her hair in a bun while the other wore hers in a braid. Their clothing was actually a robe with pants and a shirt underneath, all loose and flowing, the style uniquely different from the style Wutains used. They also both had indigo robes, but one had a violet shirt and green pants while the other had a blue shirt and brown pants.

Once he'd assessed that, and the fact that Reno had flopped down near the three of them while Rufus stood oddly patiently near Reno, he told the two twenty-five-ish-year-olds, "This array is a holy elemental variant normally used for judgment. By changing these three elements of functionality, it still judges, but rather than harming, it creates a barrier a would-be attacker can't pass. This also comes from the Shield Materia and from my own studies on how the arrays work, and because this is a single array rather than the multitudes of inter-linked ones from Materia, it's more versatile. If you want me to add sub-arrays, I can do that, too, but this will let you keep a zone safe, because one of the functions I've changed is its duration, to make it remain in effect until you take it down."

The two seemed surprised as they gazed at the array, then the one with the braid said, "You have highly advanced skills in this area of study, more even than we do, yet we are aware of what you have done here for this array to be functional. We shall use it to establish a protected zone around—Omega Rock. Thank you, Sentinel kin."

He gave them a wry grin and nod. "Sure. Don't worry about running out of your casting energy, either—with it being a permanent effect, it only takes your energy once, unless you need to re-cast it for some reason. Just keep an eye on it for stability if it's being attacked so you _can_ re-cast it quickly if it comes down." Both nodded, so he faced Reno and Rufus and asked, "So, where are we headed to?"

Rising, the red haired teen nodded into the vegetation in one particular direction—what looked like the direction of Genesis' 'honest-to-goodness pillar'. "We're most likely ta figure out what we're lookin' at and figure out any gimmicks, so we're goin' ta the only real landmark the General and Commander found, yo."

"Got it," Eden agreed, and the three men headed in that direction.

"I don't see why I can't just take command when that's what I've been trained for," Rufus muttered rebelliously as they walked, making Reno snort as Eden blinked at him.

"Rufus, I have yet to see you do anything military command-like in battle," the blond Turk told him dryly. "You may be able to run a business, but combat command is something else entirely and better left to those with real experience in doing it."

"He just don't like takin' orders from others, the spoilt brat," Reno snorted. Rufus glared, but Reno was already asking, "So...Fuhito snatched you, yo?"

"Yeah, but he was going to rush a ritual to kill Felicia and destroy the world. I _had_ to stop him _then_ , not days later. Though, I guess it didn't matter in the end, because the President did it for him," Eden sighed.

After giving him a sidelong look, Reno asked, "How's your leg?"

The absence of the typical accent and 'yo' made Eden look up at him in surprise. "It's fine," he answered with a slight frown. And it was true—whatever had been wrong with it before seemed to no longer be an issue, as there was no pain or discomfort.

"So...somethin' skewers your leg an' you expect me ta believe nothin's wrong with it, yo?" the older Turk asked with a glare.

"I second that thought," Rufus added with a glare of his own.

"Yes. Look, whatever Fuhito speared me with effectively cauterized the wound, and after whatever happened to move us to this new location also seems to have _healed_ it. Just like it caused Genesis' and Sephiroth's wings to grow and their energy wings to become visible to all the rest of us, and probably a lot of other things, too," the blond glared back at both of them.

Reno gave a huff and kept walking as Rufus gave him another glare and followed the red haired Turk, so Eden followed them, noting how their assigned Academy students had fallen in behind them shortly after they had gotten into the wooded area. The students didn't say anything or get too close, so he didn't really pay any attention to them, and soon after, they had made it near enough to the edge of the island so they could see the crater rim. Not far from where they were, they found a clearing smaller than the one they'd started on which had—sure enough—more than one sign of the ruins of some sort of civilization.

Covered in seaweed, brine, and who knew what else.

Eden began scrambling from point to point of the area as he tried to assess what it was or had been, and found himself momentarily confused. "It's not a building, but how did marble—items—get into the middle of the ocean?"

"Elite ships or airships would have had such things on them," Rufus commented as he and Reno kicked at a ridge below some sort of small statue, and Eden realized the ridge was metal—metal which hadn't rusted.

The blond Turk made his way over as he asked, "Really? Marble?"

"My father held some events on such a ship," the white-clad blond replied as the younger teen crouched to examine the metal ridge, clearing more of the sand away from it as he did.

"Yeah, those're some fancy shit, yo," Reno threw in, making a face.

After a moment, Eden said a bit absently, "It looks like a mix of titanium and mythril." Reno's and Rufus' brows rose questioningly as Eden looked up and around, assessing the debris they'd seen on the way there and what they had found at their destination, then said, "Probably a fair-sized ship either meant for combat or research. Or both."

"How d'ya figure that, yo?" Reno asked curiously as Rufus gave an impressed whistle.

The younger blond turned back to the statue and clapped his hands together, then put his hands on the sand. All of it cleared away from the objects, piling in a circle around them—and producing yelps from Reno, Rufus, and the students as they all scrambled to keep their footing in the moving sand. What was revealed in the pit was a fairly large, multi-tiered and fully sealed box with five separate 'drawers' on its front, which faced the ocean at an odd angle.

Eden examined the locking mechanisms closely, and quickly realized they were electronic and probably wired to bite if someone who didn't have the codes tried to get into them. The only easy way around that problem was with alchemy, as there was no indication that they were triggered to recognize an alchemic reaction. It only took him a moment to put his hands together again and put them down on the box, causing all the locks to pop off and fall on the ground at his feet. Reno just stared at him for a moment before giving a wry grin, Rufus blinked in surprise, and the Academy students' jaws hung open in shock and awe.

"So, let's see what we got in there, yo," Reno said, nudging Eden out of the way as he moved to pull the top drawer open.

As it opened, both stopped to stare at the items inside. There were three glowing spheres (they were obviously not Materia, though), several schematics (all in a language they couldn't read), several styles of handguns, and another, smaller and sealed box in the back. The guns looked similar to one another, but also different, and there were no bullets, leading the pair to think these guns shot something more like laser beams. Reno picked up one which was mainly black and yellow and climbed onto the top of the sand pit, took aim at a nearby rock, and shot.

The rock had a fair-sized hole in it and obvious scorch marks across the surviving surface, but the scorch marks seemed to have been caused by an electrical current, not flames.

Looking at the gun in his hand, Reno asked the blond Turk, "Can ya read the schematics enough ta tell if they've got a power supply limit, yo?"

Snorting, Eden replied, "They probably have one, but I think they'll last longer than traditional bullets. Let's see..." He began scanning the schematics for commonalities, then took note of one of them and realized an easy way to tell. "The glowing band on the side of the barrel near the grip—that's the power supply meter. It's a different color for each gun because each one shoots something different, but the meter is in the same place on all of them. I can't tell how much power or how many shots it'll give, or how to replenish them."

After a pause, the red haired Turk rejoined him as he muttered, "Maybe..." Pulling out the smaller box, he set the gun on top of the metal crate and put the smaller box beside the gun, then flipped it open. Inside were several glowing sticks, each pair in colors matching each of the guns—each gun apparently had two replacement supplies.

Eden blinked, then shrugged and asked, "Do our PHS's work?"

"Why dontcha check, yo?"

"Fuhito hijacked mine."

There was a moment of shock, then Reno pulled out his. Picking a number, he auto-dialed it, and soon after, he said, "Yeah, looks like Eden's luck's holdin' true, an' we got ourselves a windfall of powerful guns that'll last a lot longer than bullets, yo. Problem is, there's four more drawers of shit that'll probably all be useful, and we ain't got no way ta carry it." The red haired Turk's expression became shocked as he turned to look at Eden, then he said, "Got it," and hung up. Eden gave him an amused look, so he said, "Tseng said ta get you to make a cart or somethin' for the crate. How're we gonna get the crate outta this hole, though?"

The blond rolled his eyes and gazed at the crate for a minute before giving a small nod and clapping so he could put his hands down on the sand again. That time, rather than moving away from whatever was in it, the sand all moved back into the hole, pushing Reno, Rufus, the crate, and Eden upwards from below. The older Turk yelped in shock as he lost his balance and fell, but Rufus—a little more used to the moving ground trick of Eden's—was able to catch the gun and the box of replacement power supplies. The students also fell, but at least they fell onto solid ground rather than moving sand.

"Ya couldn'ta warned me, yo?" Reno asked him with a scowl.

"I've found most people don't heed the warning, even when I give it," the younger Turk replied, gaze amused. "Now, this is mostly sand, and things on wheels don't tend to work very well in sand...so I guess we need treads more than we need wheels." He put his hands together again and put them on the crate, causing it to shift until most of the outer casing had slid down off the bars linking the shelves to form tank-like treads and a pull-handle below the crate.

"Can you pull that?" Eden asked tiredly as he nodded towards the handle.

"Dunno. Am I _goin'_ to pull it all the way back ta where Tseng is, probably not," Reno replied with a scowl.

"I meant, does it move properly so we can take turns pulling it?" the younger Turk clarified, gaze flicking to the four students who had been assigned to them.

Rufus rolled his eyes and grabbed the handle to start pulling on it. The red haired Turk blinked, then joined Rufus. At first, it was a little stuck in the sand, but with a good heave, they were able to get it free, and it turned out to move smoothly and easily.

"'Kay, looks like we're all good," Reno said, then spun to face the Academy students. "Alla you lot are gonna help us haul this thing, so that means about four minutes for each a ya, yo. I don't care who goes first, long as ya all take a turn." He then smirked and asked the only girl with them, who looked about fifteen, "Ladies first? Gets ya over and done with right quick so the rest of your walk'll be easy, yo."

She gaped at him, then glared and said, "That's rude. I shouldn't have to pull it at all!"

He blinked, but Eden said, "If you think women in the Turks are treated differently than the men, think again. You're going to have to work just as hard as all of us guys."

She was about to answer in anger when a new voice chirped, "True!" A moment later, a red haired fifteen-year-old landed on Eden's back, arms around his neck, as he yelped.

"Cissnei!" he glared over his shoulder at her.

She dropped off his back and turned him to face her, hands on his shoulders as she said, "It's good to know you're okay after those Ravens snatched you. You _are_ okay, aren't you? We've all noticed the burnt hole in your pant leg." There were three more students with her, two of those young women around seventeen-ish.

"Who's the 'all'?" Eden asked in reply.

"Oh, the Turks. Some odd few of SOLDIERs who weren't traveling with us—but Genesis, Kunzel, Zack, and Luxiere all noticed for sure. Some of the Turk hopefuls, like these two ladies. I think most of the Guardians and the Motos did, too."

There was a sound like a sharp crack from the direction of the jagged crater rim, and a few tentacles rose above it, trying to grab onto the top ridge. The thing in the water withdrew when it cut itself on the sharp rock. All three Turks, Rufus, and the students with them watched the process in something like fascinated horror. After a moment, Cissnei turned to Eden to snatch his arm with one hand, dragging him over to the titanium cart, grabbing the handle of said cart, and pulling both it and Eden along behind her with ease. Reno howled with laughter as Rufus gave his head an amused shake at Eden's cross expression and the whole process, then motioned for the students to follow Cissnei and Eden.

It didn't take long for the group to return to the clearing by Omega Rock, and Cissnei had pulled both Eden and the cart the whole distance without even being winded. The girl who had complained about having to pull the cart for a few minutes looked thoroughly chastised and put out, but none of the students said a word.

Tseng looked up at them in confusion as he saw Cissnei with them—apparently leading the group—but was distracted as one of the Guardians landed beside him to hand him a paper. Tseng took it with a nod, then turned his attention to it for a minute, until the group with the cart reached him. Not far from him was a pile of Materia shards, and as people came and went, they either added to it or took away from it. It was obvious Tseng was just 'marking' a place to leave them all.

As they approached, before the Wutain could say anything, Freyra said from where she was sitting nearby, "Okay, I've sorted out what was in the bag—Tseng, whoever had it was obviously gathering illusion stones. As far as I can tell, every known one except for the ones Eden passed around was there—even a bunch which would have been stolen from the Mideelers. Are you _sure_ I get first dibs, though?"

"Freyra, you've been waiting for _years_ to get a pair you like. For us to be able to use all the rest now—letting you choose first is a small price to pay for the boon those are now," Tseng told her. He then looked back up at the group with the cart and asked, "Did you happen to check what was in the _other_ drawers before you brought it back?"

"Nope," Eden replied. "There was no point in leaving any of it there, because if _we're_ not going to use it, the engineers _will_."

Tseng blinked, then moved over to the cart and began opening drawers. Besides the handguns in the top drawer, the second from the bottom drawer had shotguns, and there was even a sniper rifle in it. The middle drawer held daggers with energized blades, some like Shelke's laser daggers and others with edges which gave off elemental energies. The bottom drawer had claw weapons clearly meant to be attached to the hand and arm, designed with blades much like the daggers. (1) In the second drawer, there seemed to be rings, bracelets, and decorated wrist bracers with no discernible use. That was in addition to additional ammunition for the guns, more of those strange, glowing spheres, and schematics for the items in each drawer.

Cissnei let go of Eden's arm to pick up one of the bangle bracelet sets, eying it for a moment before grinning and saying, "Since this is just—jewelry, I'm going to have some—" She stopped with a yelp as she slid it on, her jaw hanging open.

"Are you all right, Cissnei?" Tseng asked, reaching over to wave his hand in front of her blank gaze.

She blinked as her eyes cleared and focused, then faced him and said, "This is some _fucking powerful_ jewelry! I've apparently got complete elemental absorption by wearing this thing—I'll be healed every time I'm hit by any elemental magic or skill!" (2)

Everyone turned to stare at her, including Freyra, then Tseng began sorting through the items as he tested many of them for a moment before setting them aside again. "Well," he said at last, then looked up at Eden with a wry smile. "It looks like Reno's right and your inhuman luck is still holding true. These are exceptionally powerful, all of them, and I can think of some people who will benefit exponentially from some of these abilities. Depending on what comes our way, we may even want to hold the most powerful ones to give to our most powerful hitters should they need it. I want you to have this one, though."

The ring he offered to Eden was a more simple, masculine design, and when Eden tried it on, he found himself practically doubling in his physical and mental capabilities, so grudgingly left it where he'd put it, on his left thumb. Though, it did feel somewhat unsettling to have it on, likely because it was pushing his abilities past his body's natural ability, even the enhanced version granted by the various Plus Independent Materia.

Tseng then looked at Freyra and asked, "How's your sorting coming along?"

She looked back down at the pairs of stones of varying colors she'd laid out in front of her and said, "I've worked out the best pairs, but not all the people who will use them. I'm not sure who's best for some of them. Most of the greens and yellows are going to end up with the Cetra—they've been fantastic with Aeris' healing abilities, after all—but the rest are more difficult. I'm going to take the only blue and orange combo I came out with after sorting it, though—and I think the other orange pairs or orange and other pairs should go to the people who rely on guns. Like Emma and Ruluf. You have a pair already, so I'm not going to give you another one."

"I wouldn't want another one, regardless," Tseng replied dryly. "I have more than enough to do with the pair you gave me already." He then noticed a small pile of many-colored stones had been set apart from the neat pairs and asked, "Is something wrong with the ones you set aside?"

"They work, but the only pairs they would make are—difficult to do anything useful with," the woman sighed. "They aren't all that functional, and I'm not even sure if it's possible to, say, use the two red ones together to get the basic effects of a normal pair of reds, and now isn't really the time to test that. Then again, we're one short, so one would just not be used. Who do you want me to prioritize?"

"Probably the Turks, the Guardian Forces if they want them, and Gaia's Refuge. Students if you know of any who will benefit from them. Start deciding on who should have them—you know who you've already given them to, so no doubles," Tseng told her. " _Are_ there any SOLDIERs who would benefit from them?"

"No, not if they stick to the heavy SOLDIER swords," she snorted in amusement. "A couple might benefit if they'd take a lighter weapon, but as things stand, no."

"I didn't think so," Tseng agreed.

"Just one thing," Freyra said as he was about to turn back to the collection of weapons and defensive gear Eden and Reno had found.

"That is?" the Wutain blinked.

"With orange and blue paired, I might not always follow orders if the blue tells me something else is the better option for the best outcome." Freyra wasn't looking at him as she began moving pairs into particular groups.

For a moment, Tseng didn't answer, then he said, "I realize that. I have a blue as well, thanks to you."

She smiled faintly as she gave a nod.

 **Notes:**

(1) Weapons like guns are new developments—I would completely expect that after thousands of years—the Al Bhed wouldn't have just NOT developed them. So, those are literal 'new' weapons. The daggers were also not used in FFX, though it would have been strange for there to be swords and knives, but no daggers, so now these are coming into play. The last weapon type is modeled after Rikku's weapon in FFX (admittedly, it's a dagger of a sort), and would be rather useful for the Guardian Forces, formerly the Wutain army. I was trying to keep most of the weapons relatively small so many would fit in the crate, and there are many fewer weapons in the shotgun drawer compared to the number in the others. I sincerely doubt I'm going to have many blitzballs as weapons in this scenario, even if the people still play informal blitzball games after thousands of years and a much-changed setting.

(2) No, Cissnei doesn't normally swear, but in this case, she just put on some 'jewelry' and got a major bonus in her defenses. The items in that drawer are mainly based on Yuna's (rings), Lulu's (bangles), Auron's (bracers), and Kimahri's (armlets—which are a kind of bracer) 'armor' in FFX, but even compared to those, these are advanced after a huge amount of experimentation. Because this is now their time on Spira (they don't know that yet, though), many things I'm going to be using will come from that. There will be some differences in Spira's development from the original (due to passage of time) and the people from Gaia are adding differences to that, so—whatever they find is going to be general use in the sense that anyone can use it. Unlike in FFX, where only one person can use any one type of armor or weapon...


	39. 36-Calm Before the Storm

**A/N:** From here on out, perspective is especially important. If I'm speaking from a Gaian perspective, what knowledge and background they have will be different, as will how they reference things around them, from if I'm speaking from a Spiran perspective. A good deal of your reader knowledge will come from those changes in perspective.

Calm Before the Storm

Tseng and Freyra began handing out the various items in the cart-crate and the illusion stones soon after. Eden moved over to the pile of Materia and also began allocating those to people, like Final Attack and Revive or Phoenix pairs, though he hesitated to leave Academy students without it. Rufus solved the problem for him by opting not to take the pair, especially after spending so much time fighting in the Northern Crater. They were nearly done when a screech reached them from above and they all looked up to see Sephiroth slicing down airborne monsters very much like—decorated Allemagnes (1)—while fighting in the air himself.

When he finished with the monsters, he landed by the gathered group to say, "It would seem those are the first wave of airborne monsters heading in this direction. Our troops have begun encountering bipedal fish (2) and odd, watery orbs (3), though to date the only difficulty stemmed from the orbs being immune to physical attacks. Limit Breaks and magic work on them, though someone with Sense would be useful, as they repeatedly change their elemental affinity. The Evil Eyes—or this world's variation of them—are similar to fairly strong variants of ours, and there are varying bird-like types (4) headed in this direction, as well as one type Genesis dealt with over the ocean which seems similar to our Gargoyle breeds (5). There are also most definitely large and tentacled monsters, including ones with—open rib cages (6)."

As he finished speaking, there was a loud ' _crack_ ' which echoed across the island, causing him to close his eyes for a moment.

"What was that?" Tseng asked with a blink.

"That would be one of the tentacled monsters with the open rib cage. It seems one of them was able to break the ridge around us—and it is highly likely the other monsters, even water-bound ones, will attempt to attack on land," Sephiroth replied, giving his head a small shake as he opened his eyes. "They seem to have some minor flight, gliding, or hover capability should they choose to use it, and to date, the ridge has been of a height to keep them from bypassing it despite said ability. With a hole in the ridge and more likely to appear soon, they now have by-pass points. I shall return to my troop. Be prepared for battle." He then took to the air again, heading back in the direction of his post for the duration of the attack.

With a sigh, Tseng said, "And so it begins. Again." The others nearby traded partially confused and partially resigned looks, but he turned to them to say, "Well, let's hurry up and get the last items handed out so we can be ready to start fighting." He quickly handed the students the last few things and pointed them in the directions of the people who needed them, then called to the Healers and dozen or so Moto Tribals left by Omega Rock, "The battle is beginning! Now would be the ideal time to initiate the barrier!"

When Thaldras gave a nod and the twins parted ways, Tseng turned back to Eden, Reno, Cissnei, and Freyra. "The four of you are going to be heading out mainly for support at first. Keep an eye out for anything which looks like it might be useful to us, and make sure all your hits count. All of you should scatter to help out in different areas, and Eden—don't go all-out unless something turns up which forces you to do so."

"Right," the others agreed, then headed away as he pointed each one in a different direction.

He faced Rufus and said, "As much as you want to trail along after Eden, you'll help us the most by heading in Angeal's direction to give them support after your time at the Northern Crater. I had—originally sent you with them on the assumption that you would need the protection, but Rufus..." He paused, then gave the blond haired young man a small smile. "You've got the skills of a full-fledged Turk approaching our top ranks. Right now, those skills are necessary and useful, and—you don't need a babysitter to keep you safe anymore. Go head for Angeal's unit."

After a silence, the younger man gave a faint smile of pride and a small nod, saying, "We'll have to discuss that more at a later—and less hectic—time, but for now, I suppose orders are orders." He headed in the general direction he'd seen Angeal's troops take.

The Wutain gave a small sigh, hoping everyone would survive but knowing that would be nothing short of a miracle. He then made the decision to begin climbing Omega Rock so he'd have a good view of the area and the pending enemies.

FoW

Felicia was sitting on a rock near the shore, watching as tentacles and fins occasionally appeared over the crater ridge, but not reacting as long as they stayed on the far side of it.

She felt—strange. She felt like herself, but not like herself at the same time. Back on Gaia, she hadn't really had any time to ponder her transformation before being 'pulled' and knocked out, but it had been equally shocking to wake up back in her human form as it had been to transform in the first place. But the strangeness—she felt like she was trying to adapt to her own skin all over again.

Her own reasoning for 'what' she was now was that she had become a 'part' of a whole unit which had both a very different form from hers and very specific goals, paired with a capacity for assessing them which was flawed, and she was filling the gap in assessment. As she pondered Zirconaide's goals and thoughts, things she was now privy to by their merging, she realized it wasn't that she disagreed with them, it was that she disagreed with their method and 'absolute' solution. The being effectively had a mind still primitive enough that its way of assessing things was 'one person in this group did wrong, so punish them all.' _Her_ mind could assess that not everyone in a group was responsible for what one (or some) did, so she could temper its destructive targeting.

It was unfortunate that many humans also had the kind of primitive mind which said, 'one of them did something, so punish/kill them all.' She had never been able to work out why such was the case, though by her experiences, the trend seemed to be stronger in men than in women, and meeting exemplary men who saw individuals rather than a whole group was something she enjoyed. Zirconaide was intrinsically male, but Minerva followed a different trend from the Maintenance Weapon if what she had heard about the sentience was correct, and Minerva was intrinsically female. Then there was Jenova, who was also intrinsically female, but apparently more like Zirconaide.

Why was she even thinking about any of that?

 _:You are assessing it for the purpose of gleaning a comprehension of why you now exist, Earthen Champion,:_ a female voice spoke suddenly into her mind, sounding amused. She froze for a moment in shock, prompting the voice to say, straight into her mind as it had the first time, _: I am Minerva.:_ Those three words caused her a peculiar sense of vertigo before she righted herself again. _:With this merging, you may communicate with me more easily than my own Children are able to, so our discussions shall be simple affairs, even in such an event as this,:_ Minerva told her with the sense of a smile and of warmth. _:How did you come to have this form, Earthen Champion?:_

At that, she had to figure out how to reply, something Zirconaide helped her with. _:Earthen Champion? Wait, exactly what did Eden do to me?:_ she directed her thoughts at Minerva. Part of her was afraid of the answer, but part of her desperately wanted answers.

 _:My Earthen Champion is how I recognize your energies. You have been such for some time, being so earthy in tones as you are and as protective of my Beloved Child, and of me, as you are. By joining with Zirconaide, you and he are an effective Champion able to hold a position much as that of Chaos—not to destroy my world, but to save it, to assess and grant salvation to my little ones, those who have survived. Your form is that of the woman you once were merged with Zirconaide, and while that merging is permanent, your basic form appears to be that of my little ones, not the Weapon's form. As such, you may take any of your accessible forms at will or need—your current one, the hybrid form, and Zirconaide's true form. And your new form, you mentioned—my Ancient Sentinel, called Eden by all my little ones?:_

 _:You would have to ask Eden what he did, because he's the one who did it, and I'm not entirely sure he completely knew what he was doing this time,:_ Felicia replied in a dry tone, feeling both puzzled and thankful for the answer she had been given.

 _:Ah. He is quite the creative one, easily as much as my Judge. I believe he has done us all a great service in this act. We shall speak again. Prepare for battle and be well, my Earthen Champion.:_ With a final sense of joy and welcoming, Minerva withdrew.

"Felicia?" a familiar voice asked from nearby, causing her to start and turn to stare. Eden stood a few feet away, gazing at her with both curiosity and worry. "Are you feeling okay? You can usually tell when others are nearby."

Blinking, the woman said, "Yes, but your process left me with some unique abilities which were distracting just now. Your leg?"

"It's fine now, doesn't hurt at all," the blond replied in faint amusement. "Reno and Rufus lit into me about that earlier." After a moment, he said, "I probably should have asked sooner, but how are you doing after that—incident with Fuhito?"

She blinked at him, then sighed and admitted, "Mostly, I'm confused, but I'm aware of what happened. It looks like I may need to call on that power if this battle will be as bad as the entity thinks it will be."

He nodded and informed her, "I'll never let you live it down if you _run away_ after the battle if things get that bad."

Felicia paused to think about what he was saying. She knew she'd have his support, and most likely Vant's and Genesis' as well. The people she'd met because of them...while she wasn't sure about their reactions, she had to admit it wasn't likely they would turn on her now. Finally, she replied, "...I won't be going anywhere."

Eden smiled at her and gave a small nod, then looked up at the sharp crater ridge not too far away. "I guess that means things have been reasonably calm in this area so far?" he asked as he nodded towards where more tentacles were trying to grip the ridge.

"Only for so long," Felicia sighed. "I think that thing has rammed the ridge more than once, and after every time it does, it tries again to grab and pull the ridge."

"...Weird," the blond sighed in reply. "But yes, the ridge probably won't hold much longer, especially not if another one of those things managed to break it in another spot. Or so Sephiroth said."

"I see. That would have been the echoing crack I heard earlier, then?"

"It would."

"I guess it's time for battle, then. Ready, Eden?"

"Plenty ready."

FoW

Luxiere and Kunzel had opted to go with Zack and Sora after having done the trek from Icicle Inn to the heart of the Northern Crater with the younger First. No one protested their decision to do so, though they had noticed Veta follow their group shortly after they made their way towards the beach. Others of the Moto Tribe had spread out, going after different groups while normally keeping their distance—but Veta had walked right up to pace the two men, who were several feet behind Zack.

"I'm guessing the survival of the Cetra was the 'other surprise' Minerva said would be with the others of the Moto Tribe," Luxiere commented to Kunzel suddenly.

"Most likely," Kunzel agreed. "And her saving them, too, makes sense."

"Minerva told random star-travelers who are infused with Jeh-nova's cells about us and the Cetra?" Veta asked curiously, looking at the pair of SOLDIERs like she didn't know what to make of them.

Kunzel looked at her and commented, "We found the core of Omega on our travels, which apparently also meant she could appear to us, and when we entered the Northern Crater, we ended up going through the Cave right to her core. She let us in, talked with us, made sure we were well. And apparently, whatever threat Jenova had been has been nullified, so she wasn't that worried about us being there, not with Aeris, Genesis, and Eden traveling with us."

"...I see," the cat agreed. "Combat-wise, do we know who would qualify as 'stronger' between you SOLDIERs and our Tribe?"

"No one's stronger than a SOLDIER First Class," Zack replied dryly from ahead of them, turning to look back at the three with a grin. "But some people, like Eden, Deneh, and Nanaki, can really give us a run for our money. I don't know that I technically could 'beat' them, it's more likely we'd come out a draw. Then again, they traveled most of the world, building up their strength so they'd be able to take on the Northern Crater, so it makes sense they'd be so strong."

"I see," Veta blinked in surprise. "And them having traveled with the three of you is the reason you are so amenable to us?"

"That's part of it," Luxiere agreed. "But for all we fight monsters for a living, a monster who can talk with us is rare, and with your whole Tribe having that ability, I don't think I could rightly class you as 'monsters' anyway, even without that."

"Watching Reno freak out was fun, though," Kunzel smiled. "I can safely say that's the funniest reaction to them I've ever seen. It was even funnier because it was a 'big, bad Turk' who did it."

"A what?" the blue lion asked in confusion.

"Turks are—well, they have reputations revolving around being cold, cruel, and ruthless," Luxiere answered her evenly. "People forget they're human and only see that reputation without seeing anything else they are, and generally forget they have feelings and can be both kind and honorable. The fact is, they're a small group of people who will carry the heaviest burdens to keep the rest of us safe, and when we forget that—that's when we ruin them, make them into the image their reputation implies."

At the words, the blue lion fell silent in puzzled surprise, so Zack asked, "Hey, what's with those of you who are blue and purple? I mean, red and orange are at least somewhat normal for large cats like lions and tigers, but I've never seen a natural creature—instead of a monster—with blue or purple fur before."

With a slow, bemused blink, Veta replied, "The Moto Tribe has always had these four colors amongst our kind. Of course, were those two cubs children of couples in those same colors, and they were the last two of our kind on the surface, it would stand to reason you would have previously only seen those two colors. You would have to ask Minerva herself why she decided on these four colors."

"Oh, okay," the younger man grinned.

"First Fair," a voice cut in sharply. It was Sora's.

"Yeah? Are you ready to give orders now, Commander?" Zack asked with a grin as he turned to face her where she had stopped at the beach. She just looked annoyed.

"You have command of a small unit which I'd like you to take further down the beach in the direction of Genesis' unit. Your basic premise is to patrol the shore and destroy any monsters which manage to bypass the ridge. For your purposes, you can take Kunzel and Luxiere—since they followed you despite being assigned to Genesis' unit—with your usual unit," the Wutain woman told him.

"Hence sending us Genesis' way," Zack chuckled. "Okay, guys, let's head out!"

As Zack turned to leave, his unit following him (that was only six people, eight with Kunzel and Luxiere), Kunzel asked the older woman, "Does it bother you that we followed Zack?"

Sora gave him a flat look and said, "I don't actually care as long as you're making yourselves useful. Particularly since Genesis himself seemed to find the two of you following Zack amusing."

Kunzel gave her a smile and nod, then followed the rest of Zack's unit as she began calling out orders for groups to the rest of her people.

FoW

The world had changed since the Eternal Calm had begun.

Through the window in her small sitting room, she could see ominous dark clouds and several of the jet fighters (7) fending off an attack of mainly Evil Eyes and Alcyones, though there were also a couple Garudas and Varunas in the number. It wasn't one of the largest attacks they had fended off, but these ones were oddly persistent, and she wasn't sure why. Part of her wanted to be on the Bridge to give orders, but the other part knew—had learned some time ago—that she _had_ to rest if she expected to be an effective commander for her people when they really needed her, and she could tell the jet fighters were really just playing with the fiends.

With a sigh, she turned away from the window and faced the room she was in, seeing the tray of food she'd taken from the mess hall earlier. She had really only eaten a fraction of what was there so far, so she sat back down and lifted the tray into her lap to finish eating. It was a bowl of stew and herb bread—standard, boring fare for the Aeroterra. Admittedly, it was far superior to what most, especially the land-bound, had to deal with for their meals, and it was only when airships like the Aeroterra had a surplus of supplies that any of those land-bound villages got decent food.

There were six ships like the Aeroterra; theirs, the Flareterra, the Aquaterra, the Holyterra, the Shadowterra, and the Farterra (8). All of them were Al Bhed designs and had originally been meant for their own people to live comfortable lives on the move, as they were prone to both exploration and invention. The airships in that line were fully equipped communities with agricultural, recreational, residential, and experimental facilities, including everything a normal community on the planet's surface would have. They also had a strong military force, though that had been built up since the Sundering (9) had begun. It was also since the start of the Sundering that the Al Bhed had begun taking pity on the people of the world and taken them on board their ships.

She stared down at the shiny, silver tray after lifting her bowl off it, seeing her green, spiral-pupil eyes, blond hair done up in a braided ponytail, and two long, black lines running down her face on the right from her hairline nearly to her lips. As Captain (and effectively the Mayor) of the Aeroterra, she dressed in leather pants, sturdy, tall, leather boots, a tank top, goggles (currently around her neck), and a leather 'Captain's coat' which she could easily do up if she was going to head into battle directly. The boots and tank top were black, the pants bright yellow (as bright as leather could be, anyway), and her long coat was mostly green with a yellow lining and cuffs. On the back of the coat was the Aeroterra's mark, worn by all her crew and combat personnel, of a tree and a whirlwind, but below that, written in black, were the words 'Kiss and Die!' in Al Bhed script—she'd added those later.

Exclusive coloring was boring, she had decided long ago, and yet—most Al Bhed were still so exclusively colored. The ones who weren't were the ones who had one Al Bhed parent and one parent of another race—there were only two races which were so different from the basic human physiology that producing a viable child, or one at all, was almost impossible. She had been a child when the Sundering had begun, and the Aeroterra had been one of the first to begin taking refugees, so she had grown up with a variety of people around her with different appearances. It was always intriguing when a normal human proved as skilled as the Al Bhed in inventing machines, as well. They even currently had a Ronso on board who was a match for them.

Before she could muse further, a call came in on the comm, as her First Mate said, "Captain, I think you'd better come up here and have a look at this."

"What happened?" she asked in mild surprise. They rarely called her back after she'd left for the day.

"Besides all the fiends suddenly coming to a halt, then high-tailing it in the _same_ direction, you mean?" he asked in reply, his tone dry. She frowned at that, but then he added, "But no, we have some readings of a—large _something_ entering the atmosphere, and at about the same time, the skies calmed and the clouds cleared away. We're off storm warning for the first time in five years."

"Don't remove it yet. I'll be there soon," the Captain replied with a small sigh. She rose and set the bowl down—it was empty anyway—as she picked up what was left of the bread. A glance out the window showed the clouds indeed dissipated and no fiends.

"Will do," he agreed, then the tone sounded to let her know he'd disconnected.

Sticking the bread in her mouth as she did up her coat and grabbed her volt-laser pistol to return it to her hip-holster, she wondered about what—besides a rock—could have come down. Still chewing on what was left of her bread, she picked her black tricorn up off the hook by the door and settled it on her head, then headed into the hall. There, she took the bread out of her mouth to start eating what was left of it properly and quickly, making her way at a quick walk towards the Bridge. People in the halls called greetings to her, which she returned with a wave to acknowledge she'd heard it.

A younger girl with pale brown hair and green eyes with a spiral pupil on only one side fell in with her as she walked, saying cheerfully, "We can see stars!" The girl was about thirteen to the Captain's mid-thirties and wore skin-tight, knee-length shorts, a tank top so long it fell half-way down her thighs, a short jacket with short sleeves, a wide, tasseled belt, goggles sitting on top of her head, and sturdy shoes. While her shirt was black, everything else she wore was brightly colored, the jacket in green, the shorts in blue, the belt in yellow, and the tassels in every color under the sun. Her shoes were brown leather with purple laces, and her hair was tied in a short tail at the back of her head with a red, trailing ribbon with ends so long they fell almost to her knees.

The Captain gave a snort and replied, "We always could when the Aeroterra rose above the storm clouds."

"But this time, you didn't rise above them, they blew away. And the wind—or, well, I don't think it was a 'wind' because it was made of sparkling, green-white lights—came from the same direction the fiends headed in," the younger girl replied in a smug tone.

"...So why do you know that, Karru?" the older woman asked, suddenly feeling very tired. How had her niece ended up like _this_? Yes, she had Al Bhed blood, but even for the common Al Bhed behaviors, she was—a hellion.

"Oh, I wasn't hacking anything. I was watching out the terrarium window," Karru replied cheerfully. "I'd have thought they were pyreflies, but pyreflies are just sort of—drifting lights with no real form. These were similar, I guess—but they were more like literal streams of energy, something you'd see...I don't know, maybe on the Farplane or something? Like they were, but they weren't. And the fiends all headed in the direction the lights came from, so I don't think they like those lights."

Raising a brow, the Captain replied, "That's certainly something to note."

"Yeah—oh, and a few of those lights landed in the outdoor pots we haven't been able to grow anything in for awhile, and the plants started growing. I mean— _growing_! The pots are all completely full of plants we never even planted in them! They're almost fully grown, too, and that only happened—maybe ten minutes ago? At most?"

Stopping, the Captain turned to stare at the younger girl for a minute, then reached into her pocket for the device she always carried on her which would link her directly to the Bridge. Activating it, she waited until her First Mate asked, "What is it, Captain?"

"Head in the same direction as the fiends headed in. We'll see about more once I get there," she told him, then shut down the device again.

The hum of the ship told her they had started moving as she—with her niece tagging along—kept heading for the Bridge.

 **Notes:**

Keep in mind that Spira has had OVER 3000 years of development since FFX/X-2/other FFX franchise stuff! I'll provide a more accurate date later, as an estimate. And apparently all water-bound Spiran monsters actually have some sort of hover ability which was prominently noted and used in FFX-2.

(1) These are yellow Evil Eyes for those who don't know FFX's monsters, meaning they're most like the Allemagnes from the Northern Cave, rather than the green Evil Eyes on Gaia.

(2) These 'bipedal fish' are FFX's version of a Sahagin (Gaia's is more turtle-like), and come in both a bipedal form and a more standard fish form. I guess they'd be comparable to piranhas.

(3) Spiran 'monsters' called Gels in general, though given the names Greater Sphere, Spherimorph, Amorphous Gel, and Protean Gel.

(4) Spira's 'birds' are sort of like fat gulls with almost axe-like beaks, and include several variants across FFX/X-2...They include the types: Alcyone, Condon, Simurgh, Aquila, Divebeak, and Peregrin.

(5) The creatures most like Gaia's Gargoyle types are the Spellspinner breeds, which include the Varunas of FFX and the line of monsters which transform from a Daeva to an Aka Manah to an Aeshma in FFX-2. I'm also assuming the latter line produces fiends far more powerful than the Varuna, at least after it's transformed past the Daeva stage.

(6) This monster, known as the Geo breed, is normally a boss, but after thousands of years, there are a few more of them than the two encountered across FFX and X-2. It appeared as Geosgaeno (FFX) and Georapella (FFX-2). Now, there are about 10.

(7) This is a technological advancement for combat, but no, it's nothing like our airplane 'jet fighters'. I'll be explaining it in more detail from Karru's perspective later.

(8) These ships are actually space-worthy craft, though any current outdoor facilities wouldn't be useable in space. You'll find out later why they haven't sent them out into space.

(9) The Sundering is a fairly recent event in Spira's timeline which will be explained later on. That is, both 'what' it is, and how it came to be. By that logic, you're going to be getting a history lesson (some very major turning points, not a few thousand years of who hated who, who made up, who invented an automatic salt shaker, or other minor points like that).

I'm thinking necessary progression would be the major points of Sin's creation and the start of the Eternal Calm will need to be mentioned to the Gaians, but the rest will all be new developments from that point forwards, and I'm only planning to give the short-hand of about—9 points leading to the Sundering and the Sundering itself. Other points will come up as the Gaians talk with the Spirans. For example, the Dresspheres and the events of X-2 aren't very important to the Sundering directly, but they HAVE impacted other things in the world and may come into play in other ways after (or maybe before) the history lesson. Though, my version outfits for the Dresspheres (since they'll be introduced, but 'used', I have no idea) WON'T be essentially sexualized slut outfits with some completely ridiculous ones...And no costume changes will EVER happen during battle if I DO use them. I'm not writing a 'magical girl' story, here...


	40. 37-Desperate Measures

Desperate Measures

The battle had begun on easy terms.

Tseng, from on top of the Omega Rock's head, observed the progression of what he'd seen so far, calling in warnings to others as he could and wondering how it was possible for their PHS's to work. Still, he was grateful for it and very much hoped they would be able to retain that advantage during and after the mess. As much as he'd seen combat against some of the flying foes of this strange—but eerily similar—world, most of the others had been fighting water-based monsters. The 'rib-cage monster' was one of the more durable and powerful types, and about six different ones had put holes in the ridge around the island.

SOLDIER and Gaia's Refuge were dealing with most of the monsters, though with many Turks using guns—especially now that they had some new toys to play with—they were seeing a fair bit of the battle against airborne monsters. The Moto Tribe and Guardian Forces were also handling some odd monsters, either because they got past the main combatants or because they were working crowd control.

In all honesty, he'd been expecting a much faster-paced battle with more opponents much sooner. After thinking about it for awhile, he felt it was indeed possible other land was very far away and the flying monsters would have to get there from said distant land. Until then, their battle was actually fairly easy and not particularly straining, for which he was grateful—because he was sure it wasn't going to last.

Then, a rather large bird similar possibly to a type of crane or swan (1) flew in—and on its back were three other, smaller, land-bound monsters, and one more was clinging to its leg. The four smaller monsters dropped to the ground as the bird flew over the beach. One of the land-bound ones looked oddly like some sort of red-capped mushroom (2), two were like four-legged, armored bugs with a long, almost reptilian tail (3), and the last—was very obviously a Tonberry, though a rather decorated one.

He sighed, and was suddenly very thankful for the white wall of light surrounding Omega Rock.

"Holy Alexander—they're running a monster taxi service now," a familiar voice commented in amusement from behind and off to one side of him. The Wutain turned to look, and sure enough, he saw Genesis hovering there, generating a ball of fire in one hand. The red haired man then tossed the fire at the four land-based monsters, and the only one which wasn't easily defeated was the Tonberry. "That's going to make things more difficult. Especially if their Tonberrys are anything like ours."

"If your flame attack couldn't kill one in one hit, I'll hazard a guess and say they will be. Could you maybe try to shoot down the 'taxi drivers' before they get here with their passengers?" Tseng asked of the older man.

"I can try, but I can't keep my attention on them," Genesis answered with a shake of his head. "There are more and more monsters coming through the cracks in the ridge, and one of those rib-cage ones even broke an opening large enough for _it_ to come through. Don't let your guard down—this isn't a highly defensible position, it makes you a sitting duck."

"That's where the barrier comes in handy," Tseng replied in mild amusement, motioning at the wall of light the Cetra twins had set up.

Genesis paused, then gave a nod and turned to look behind the two of them. "By the way, did you notice that?"

Turning to look, Tseng sighed again as he saw a massive shape in the air which was still quite far away and moving towards them. It was undefined in anything other than its bulk in the darkness, and they were really only aware it probably wasn't a monster because it was covered in what were obviously vehicle lights—it was probably an airship. It was also shining some of its lights on flying monsters heading their way, and on occasion, it looked like something humanoid was passing over the lights and striking down monsters.

"I guess we'll be finding out soon if they're enemies or allies," the Wutain sighed again. "At least they seem to be as much after the monsters as we are."

"That's true," Genesis agreed. "I need to head back now. Don't be careless."

The man had wheeled and flown away before Tseng could answer, and the Wutain turned his attention back to their surroundings. It was one thing to know the rate and difficulty of the battle would increase, but it was another to experience the influx of monsters. Genesis shot down as many of the monster taxis as he could, and the people on the airship also apparently had the same idea—they had stopped several kilometers from the edge of the island and had their people aloft (how, when it was obvious they didn't have wings?) to tackle the flying ones. However, even with their help, the more monsters reached them, the more also got through to drop other monsters to the ground.

Their only benefit up to that point was how most of the monsters were on the smaller end—the largest ones were Cuahl-like cats (4) which sometimes rode on the larger birds' backs, one on each bird and often with no or one other monster. Unfortunately, even if the taxis got shot down, more often than not, the monsters they dropped were near enough to swim to the island, or were able to hitch a ride on one of the oceanic monsters. They now had odd, elemental-like entities (5) and large, white and black wasps (6) attacking them as well, and they had just met their first few ghosts (7), which had floated across the water's surface.

As they had fought, five other airships like the first had come up, all of them from different sides and all of them participating equally in the battle, mainly to take care of the flying monsters. It helped alleviate some of the pressure on Omega Rock's defenders, who were now also being taken to the shielded zone for care when they got injured. Having a host of Cetra Healers to tend their injuries was turning out to be highly helpful in the battle. He was very thankful for them as he looked down to see one of them tending Reno.

FoW

Strapping one of the jet-boots on, Karru checked to make sure it had locked into place properly, then let out an annoyed huff. "Think I can't do anything for you..." she muttered disgustedly, reaching for the other boot.

The thirteen-year-old had gone with her aunt to the bridge, only to be locked out before she could even hear the juicy details of what was going on. The alarms to prepare for combat—extended and hard combat—had begun ringing soon after, sending all the Aeroterra's civilians into protected zones. She had stumbled a few times as people had jostled her, but rather than going to the places she'd have been completely safe (if such a thing was really possible), she headed for the combat launch. She was now sitting there on one bench as she prepped to join the jet fighters, with the jet-jacket in green already strapped on, the helmet beside her on the bench, and one of the green jet-boots strapped on. The other, she was just tightening.

Jet fighting wasn't for the faint at heart, it was for the energetic and adventurous. They didn't wear much for armor besides the helmet because most armors wouldn't allow the mobility which was the point of the combat method, so it also meant those who fought had to be fast and able, both physically and mentally. They also almost all used guns because they were fighting in the air, using the jet-pack on the jacket (which was actually more like a harness with very, very strong straps) for lift and the jets on each boot for control of direction.

Karru knew all that, but she'd been banned from even practicing with the jet-boots until she was sixteen, and she was _bored_ , she wanted to _help_ them! Also, it couldn't be _that_ hard to use them if so many people could do it. She even had quite a bit of combat training, even if it was only in the Gamesphere room (8).

Finally, she was finished with the other boot, and had double-checked to make sure it was secure, so she pulled her goggles over her eyes, then settled the helmet on her head and strapped it on. Ready, she rose and faced the human-sized exit out to open air, then tapped the Sphere on the front of the jet-jacket to activate the jet system. She shot forward, promptly losing her balance and falling out the door towards waves and fiends below her, but was able to catch herself and start figuring out how to direct herself, mostly ignored in the battle around her.

Being a quick learner was her only saving grace, she realized, as she found herself only a few feet above the ocean by the time she had anything like control over where she went.

But, she now had the hang of things, so she grinned and drew her holy-laser gun (actually, it wasn't hers, she'd 'borrowed' it from her aunt's storage chest weeks ago) and started shooting at the fiends the other Aeroterra jet fighters were fighting. The holy-laser did them a shocking amount of damage, and she was having fun as she learned how to shoot while dipping, twisting, and dodging through the air. She had to actually do that to avoid _some_ of the fiends, but mostly, she was just picking off the ones focused on the others.

Until she heard a screech nearly right in her ear, followed by the grating of strong claws on metal. In the next moment, she was falling as the Sphere on the front of the harness let out a warning shriek to let her—and everyone else nearby—know the jet suit had given out too severely to return her to the port. She felt a sense of vertigo as she dropped towards the ocean with nothing to catch her, and a fiend's shriek was all the indication she had that one of them was following her down.

That was bad!

She cringed as she realized there was really no way she'd be able to stop, or even slow, her fall, and right below her—was a Geo, just waiting for her to land in its rib cage.

Suddenly, she felt a strong arm wrap around her waist as a very, very powerful flame struck the fiend she knew had followed her, and she jolted to a halt with a small, "Oof!"

"It's okay, kiddo, I've got you," a melodic voice she didn't recognize said as she struggled to get her breath back. All she could see right then was black boots, pants, and a red leather coat. Wait, did that mean someone from the Flareterra had made their way over to the Aeroterra's zone? Where were his jet-boots, then? "Oh, my—those things are rather persistent, aren't they?"

Karru gasped as the one holding her around the waist suddenly shot backwards, and she saw three Varunas—no, they were Aeshmas!—pass by the spot she and the man had just been in. Twisting, she looked up at the man, and her eyes widened in shock as she saw his flyaway, red hair, _glowing_ blue eyes, and...one gray, bird-like wing on his left shoulder and a glowing, white energy wing on his right. He had a red and silver sword in the hand not supporting her weight, and she was able to see wisps of flames floating around him and his blade.

As the Aeshmas screeched and turned back to the two of them, she cringed, only for the man to sheath his sword and extend one hand towards the three attacking fiends. Her eyes widened in amazement as glowing lines—runes in a language she didn't know—appeared around his wrist, and light flared as the Aeshmas hit those glowing lines. Karru's jaw dropped as the fiends dissolved immediately into pyreflies, only the pyreflies weren't the formless ones she'd previously known, they were green-hued white like the lights which had caused the plants in the pots to grow.

"How did you do that?" she asked him in amazement, turning to stare up at him.

He gave her a grin which could only be described as 'cocky' (that made her like him right away) as he said, "I'm a magical genius, of course. Now, since you obviously aren't one of the combat personnel, I'm going to return you to our safe zone on the island. Hang tight—we'll be able to return you to your people after the battle."

The man then wheeled and flew towards the new island—she was sure this whole area had been open ocean before—as she looked up at her own ship. The Aeroterra was in good shape, and she was glad. Her gaze moved back to his energy wing as she asked eagerly, "How did you get wings? Can I get a pair, too?"

With a snort, the man told her, "You wouldn't _want_ to suffer what I suffered to get them, kiddo. Because I'd gladly get rid of them to undo all the pain and suffering their sick creator caused to me and everyone I care about."

She blinked and stared up at his eyes—they were focused ahead of the two—as she saw an expression of deep pain there. It was just for a moment, but it was there, and she realized he'd been an unwilling experimental subject. Apparently, he hadn't been the only one, either. Then, he passed through a wall of white light and landed, moving to set her on her feet as his expression turned cheerful.

"Hello, Flower Girl!" he called, and a girl a couple years older than her turned to face them, showing her green eyes—those eyes didn't have spiral irises, though.

"Genesis, are you hurt?" the girl asked worriedly.

Karru had to snort. "Genesis? _Really_? Whose bright idea was _that_?" she asked the man in amusement, only to put her weight on her foot on the side the fiends had damaged—and cry out in pain as jabbing agony shot through her foot, ankle, and leg, nearly right up to her spine.

Her leg couldn't take her weight and she began falling again—only for Genesis to catch her. Again. His wryly amused gaze met her pained one as he said, "I happen to like having such a dramatic name. Take it easy, now—you must have been running on some very high adrenaline to have missed the damage they did to you before I caught you."

"Here," the 'Flower Girl' said as she knelt beside the two and held her hands over Karru's leg. Karru watched in amazement as something like a wind carrying many sparkling, green lights softly wound around her wounded leg and the skin began knitting together. The pain vanished, and she suddenly felt a lot better. It was obviously healing, but a different sort than any Cure spell would cause. Then, the older girl sat back and asked, "How do you feel?"

"Better, thanks," Karru admitted. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

"Good," the older girl smiled, then looked up at Genesis as he let the younger girl sit on the ground and rose. "You're heading back to the battle, then?" she asked of the older man.

"Of course," he agreed. "I still have men fighting out there—I'd better rejoin them."

"Have you seen Eden?" the sixteen-year-old girl asked, gaze worried.

"He's out by the coast with Felicia," the red haired man replied. "Don't worry, he's still fine, and so is she." He then shot into the air and returned to the aerial battle.

"...Are all of your names as strange—and flashy, and cool—as Genesis' and Eden's?" Karru asked wryly of the older girl to distract her from her obvious worry.

She gave a wry smile and shook her head. "I don't know why Genesis was named that, but Eden's is a code name, and most of the rest of our names are pretty normal in comparison. My name's Aeris, by the way. Yours?"

"I'm Karru," she said, tugging off her helmet and pushing her goggles up onto the top of her head.

"I see. It's nice to meet you, Karru," Aeris smiled.

There was a shout for healers as several injured men and a few women were carted into the circle of light some distance away. The older brown haired girl gave her shoulder a pat, then rose and ran over to help heal the injured.

Karru rose and headed for the wall of light with the intent to explore some of the island—but suddenly found a very large cat, probably about the size of a Coerl, in her way, its color indigo with a red mane, and a fire burning on the tip of its tail. Then, her jaw dropped open as the cat—male by his voice—said, "Stay in the safety of the barrier, cub. You were already injured once in what was no doubt curiosity. This is not a safe place for you to wander at this time."

"...Cats aren't supposed to talk like a human..." she muttered dazedly.

The large cat gave her an amused look and said, "Given how you smell like a large cat, I do not believe you have the right to say such a thing, cub."

She then made a face. "That's like what Toruhi (9) calls me, too!" she complained. "I'm not a kid—I can take care of myself!"

"And that is how you were injured?" the cat asked, gaze even more amused.

She blinked, then blinked again and scratched the side of her head. "So, you're not a Ronso, because you'd have a human-shaped body with cat features and a horn if you were, but you're not an animal, and you're not a fiend, so what _are_ you?"

"My kind are referred to as the Moto Tribe. We are a long-lived sentient race which happens to resemble a large feline," he offered, sitting in front of her, but gaze never moving away from her.

"...So are you my designated babysitter or something?" she asked with a glare, puffing out her cheeks in anger and a pout.

"Since it appears you need one, cub, so it would seem."

The reply stung, but she couldn't completely argue it, either—she'd be dead now if Genesis hadn't caught her, and...well, maybe battle wasn't quite as fun as she'd thought. But she wanted to explore!

With a sigh, she realized these cats were very alert to anything she might try to get away from his watchful gaze. Of course, that implied the Moto Tribes' kids were just as mischievous and energetic as her, so she thought she'd really, really like to meet them.

"Hey, are there any kids around here I can play with if I'm not allowed to explore?" she asked hopefully.

He rolled his eyes. "No. Fortunately, our deity had the sense not to place children on a battlefield unless they truly had the experience necessary. Those are a very small number of our combatants."

"Aww..." She pouted, then sighed. Boredom it was. She sat down again and peered around at all the healers working around her.

Hey, it was better than looking at nothing.

FoW

Tseng had noted Genesis' return with an injured child from one of those airships in the sky, but hadn't really had time to think about their new arrival—the monster mobs were getting worse. He was beginning to wonder if they ever were going to stop coming or if there was some sort of monster production factory on whatever the nearest continent was.

However, as dawn broke, a massive, booming, grating howl echoed across the water, and was answered by several growling, piercing shrieks, very similar to the battle cries of Dragons.

Looking up into the distance in all directions, Tseng had to give a truly heart-felt sigh. There was something like a black mountain at a distance, moving towards them to one side (at least, he assumed it was moving, as it hadn't been there before), and five other large shapes flew through the air towards them, all from different sides. The large—mountain—in the water was an unknown to him, though his first thought was a mutant Adamantaimai (10)—they'd have their work cut out for them trying to break its defense alone. The other five, if they really were some sort of Dragon...

He braced himself, not sure what he should do next, even as the five flying shapes drew near very quickly. They drew closer, near to the island, and his eyes widened as he realized several things—several very bad things—all at once. First, they _were_ types of Dragons (11), easily larger than the ones they knew. In conjunction with that, he also realized they were more decorated, in a sense, and even just one shot from one as it reached the shore showed the 'decoration' wasn't for show, they were more powerful than any of the Dragons from the Planet. Third, he realized every one of them was carrying more, larger, and stronger monsters than the other flying monsters had been. And to top all _that_ off, they were, in fact, leading a mass of flying monsters—the larger ones of those were also carrying monsters with them.

The sheer numbers would overwhelm them, let alone the Dragons and the 'mountain' in the ocean.

A look down below him showed the Cetra, Aeris amongst them, as they worked to heal their allies.

His sister in all but blood would _die_ if they couldn't stop those monsters.

It wasn't the first time he'd felt a desperate desire to help those he cared about, but it _was_ the first time he'd felt it since the stone on his forehead had turned red again.

Suddenly, he felt like something inside him was spilling out from his body, and he found he had no control over any part of his body. Light surrounded him, and he vaguely noted how he was lifted off Omega Rock, then encased in what he recognized as the form of an Alexander. In a way, that was bemusing to him—he'd never known _that_ part of the equation, and he didn't think his mother had, either. (12)

Then, wings sprouted from the Alexander's back and wrapped around him and the area of Omega Rock (or so it looked from his current view, and he wasn't capable of even turning his head), then spread wide. As they spread, hundreds, even thousands, of white lights shot from those wings, and every one of those bolts bent, curved, and struck the monsters all the way around the island, in the water, in the air, on land. (13) Every monster was hit once, and only a very few were strong enough to survive the blow—

But the Dragons were both further away (they had circled the area rather than landing right away on the shore) and more durable than the other monsters. It took time for the white bolts to reach them, and in that time, they showed their intelligence.

One of the Dragons curved to fly towards another monster, one of the large birds which was carrying a Cuahl-like monster, causing the bolt meant to strike it to hit the cat and bird along with the bolts meant for them.

Three dumped their loads of monsters and dropped to the island—they had been the closest to it, anyway, and had nothing of significance between them and it. Their wings were struck by the bolts, rather than their main body, causing them to end up grounded, but largely unharmed.

It was the last Dragon which caused him a sense of shock and horror, as it flew close alongside one of the airships, looping around behind it, and the motion drew the bolt of light into such a tight arc to follow it that the bolt hit the airship instead.

As the airship crashed to the ocean, broken and burning, he only had time to feel a brief sense of devastation as the last bolts struck their targets and darkness fell around him.

 **Notes:**

Mostly notes on the monsters in this chapter, but a few which aren't.

(1) This Spiran bird-type fiend is known as a Garuda and is much more majestic and larger than the 'birds' previously mentioned.

(2) Spiran plant-type fiend known as a Funguar.

(3) These monsters are the variants of the Blade type, from both FFX and X-2 (Epaaj, Xiphos, Machea, Barong, and Takouba).

(4) These large cats are the Coerls in most games, but rather than the traditional yellow spotted form they take, Spira's are white tiger-like. These are also some of the more powerful and difficult to defeat monsters in any FF game.

(5) Spira's Yellow/Red/Blue/Black/Gold/etc Elemental monsters.

(6) These are just called Wasps, a Spiran fiend.

(7) Similar to Ghosts on Gaia, but often called Wraiths instead, and usually dark instead of pale in color.

(8) The 'Gamesphere room' is the Spiran equivalent to the VR rooms on Gaia.

(9) No, you don't have to remember this name. It's very similar in use to Karen's—the 13-year-old experiment girl whose name her friends would know, but otherwise isn't one the readers need to keep it mind.

(10) While this was based on the Adamantaimai (Gaia) and Adamantoise (Spira), this monster is my own creation and is a fiend I view as similar to Sin or Shuyin/Vegnagun. It just wasn't known until something (Omega's landing) woke it up and prompted it to leave the deepest ocean depths where it had been just sleeping since it developed.

(11) These 'Dragons' are what began to be called 'Sacred Beasts' in FFX and most successive titles. Basically, take a Dragon and multiply its strength and capability by between 5 and 10 times. They generally serve as assortments of boss-like beings, and normally, several are known to exist at one time, but none which would technically qualify as an ordinary monster, or even an ordinary Dragon.

(12) Yes, this will be explained, and this has been part of my head-canon for a long time, so it's vaguely mentioned in Salvation's Hands, too.

(13) Think of this like the Alexander which was Alexandria Castle in FFIX (FF9), and you can look up what the effect would sort of look like by looking up "FFIX Bahamut vs Alexander" on Youtube, but this Alexander isn't a fraction as huge, and the bolts scattered all over the place instead of all focusing on one target like in the video.


	41. 38-Setting the Stage

Setting the Stage

On the bridge of the Aeroterra, the Captain sighed tiredly.

"Are you going to send someone to bring her back, Sanni?" her First Mate asked curiously from behind her. He was wearing his goggles, a black, sleeveless, turtle-neck tank top, black boots, and pants which were green from just below the knee to the waist and yellow on the lower part of the leg. His skin was darker than hers, his blond hair long enough to fall in a shaggy style to his shoulders. At his waist was a frost-laser gun. Most of her bridge crew were similarly dressed.

"I don't think she's going to realize the danger unless she finds out first-hand how dangerous battle is," Sanni replied, turning to look at the screen which showed a focused view of the island. Their bridge windows were fine for the battle zone around the Aeroterra, but even at their distance, getting a real view of the island was rather trying, partly from fiend interference and partly because of the sheer volume of things happening there.

"...She might die if you leave her out there," he pointed out.

"I know, Genzo," she scowled. "Anyone who goes out onto a battlefield might die. That mess out there is getting worse, and our people aren't playing around anymore—it's a serious battle, and I can't afford to send any of them to retrieve her when that would just as easily sacrifice _their_ lives, too. Karru can't be kept down by anything but personal experience, and even then—as long as she survives, she doesn't usually learn a damned thing, not even how to protect herself better. If she dies, there's nothing I can do."

The view of the island—which shouldn't have existed after the 'meteor' came down—showed how many people were there and fighting the fiends. She had seen what looked like normal humans there, some maybe even Al Bhed by their hair, and those were the majority of the people. However, she had also seen what she assumed were something like quadrupedal Ronsos with burning tail tips and some—strangely featured humans. They had a uniform color of skin and generally black or darker brown hair, and they were nearly all very slender and agile, much like the humans wearing strange, black and white clothing definitely not meant for combat. Most features were just too blurred at the distance to see more clearly, but this was obviously not a normal group of people. Their combat strength, all of them, was also much higher than she normally saw.

What puzzled her the most was how two of them seemed to have wings and were flying—and fighting—alongside her people with a mobility the jet fighters couldn't match. One dressed all in black with silver hair, the other dressed in black with a red coat and had red hair. The major difference in how they fought was that the first focused on physical combat while the second often fought with magic or a combination of magic and his sword. Both seemed to realize the jet fighters weren't enemies, and watched the jet fighters' backs. As the other 'Terras had arrived, the one in black with silver hair had moved to the far side of the island, by some of the other airships.

"Captain!" one of the women on the bridge crew shouted urgently, and she turned to look as four Aeshmas managed to target on Karru not far from the Aeroterra, one of them destroying two of her three jets and the other three chasing her immediately as she fell. Sanni ran to the window to watch what happened, feeling ill and wanting to reach out and save the girl, but with no way to do so.

Suddenly, the winged man with red hair and a red coat reached Karru, catching her as he sent fire at the Aeshmas. One of them burnt up, but the other three dodged most of it, wheeling away, then wheeling back to attack them. The man dodged, then created some sort of glowing ritual circle around his hand, which in turn dissolved the Aeshmas as they hit it. He then turned and flew towards the island with Karru still safely in his arm, and Sanni ran back to the screen showing the island so she could see where the two went. They landed inside the glowing wall of light around the center of the island, the place where injured people were being taken to for care. When the man returned to the battlefield soon after, it was obvious he'd left Karru there, in the closest thing to safety which currently existed.

"...Does that mean they're allies?" Genzo asked as he turned back to the readings on one of their panels which was essentially a type of radar.

"That remains to be seen," she replied dryly. "At least they don't seem to have anything against a child. We'll take what we can get for now."

"One less problem," Genzo agreed. "Especially when we have a bigger one coming—or rather, six of them."

"Six of what?" the Captain frowned.

"By the size and speed, five are probably Sacred Beasts. The last—we have no precedent, but it's at least as large as Sin was fabled to be, if not larger," her First Mate replied, making some adjustments to his readings. "Probably larger. We'll have a visual by dawn."

"That's only—what, fifteen minutes away?"

"Yeah, it came from underwater and has only just started surfacing now."

"Is it anything like Sin in appearance?"

"Not by its dimensions—it's too round. We won't know more until we get the visual."

Sure enough, as dawn was breaking, the Sacred Beasts came into range and the other fiend was close enough for a visual. All they could really see was something which looked largely like a dark, rocky, mountain, but by the fact that it was moving, it was probably a fiend which was based in water. Where it had come from or what it was, they had no way of knowing—until it lifted its head up above the surface and released a massive, booming, grating howl which actually rocked the airship and generated waves on the water below. They knew by the head that it was a type of Adamantoise, but clearly a new and very powerful breed which—unlike most of its relatives—was as at home in water as on land.

Or maybe it was just so big that water was largely a non-entity to it. Oceans on Spira could run exceedingly deep, but most were fairly shallow, and the area they were in was only about five hundred meters deep at its deepest. For the Adamantoise to be walking on the ocean floor, it had to have a base shell height slightly above the surface, and the 'mountain' on its back would add about another third to its height. By estimating its size from head to tail tip based on the general size ratio for other Adamantoises, that meant it was about seven hundred and fifty meters tall, about four hundred wide, and about nine hundred long, with the tail and head.

It _was_ larger than Sin had been fabled to be, and by its size alone, it was highly unlikely it would be easy to defeat. The force of its howl was support and indication of that.

"You see that, Captain Aero?" a familiar voice asked tensely from the inter-ship console near the Captain's seat.

She reached over to touch the activation Sphere and asked, "Which 'that'?"

"That massive fiend in the ocean," he replied.

"I see it," Sanni replied, and would have said more—but light flared from the middle of the island.

She looked at her screen as a being unlike she had ever seen before, glowing with white light, flared and formed above the rock in the middle of the island. It looked somewhat like a machina being, like a metal soldier and fortress, but from it grew wings of light with a feathered texture, first folding around it, then spreading wide. As they spread, white lights by the multitudes shot off it and targeted—followed, even—the fiends. With those lights, virtually all the masses of weaker fiends were defeated, but it had drawbacks, as well—one of those rather severe.

The bolt of light which struck the fiend in the ocean did it no harm, which was a clear indication of the fiend's strength—likely as powerful as Sin or moreso.

While three of the five bolts targeting one each of the five Sacred Beasts hit them and ruined their wings, one of the Sacred Beasts placed other fiends in the path of the bolt so it struck them instead, and the last—put the Shadowterra in the path of the bolt.

The man on the intercom—the Captain of the Flareterra—swore vividly as the Shadowterra plunged into the ocean. Sanni's lip curled in a sneer, but then she blinked as she saw the Sacred Beast jolt, shriek with pain, and lose altitude rapidly. Then, she saw the silver haired man keeping pace with it as they began a weaving dance across the sky. He, a single man, was making that Sacred Beast very, very unhappy, and it seemed they were nearly tied in strength and sheer power.

"Looks like our winged ally is keeping the bastard busy. How about we work on rescuing the survivors, Riven?" she asked him.

"We're too far away—and it looks like Aquaterra's got them. What in blazes just happened, though?" Riven, Captain of the Flareterra and a half-Al Bhed, asked. He was clearly as confused as she felt.

Though, with the number of powerful fiends still present, and the mountain Adamantoise in the ocean, she didn't think they had really made much headway, seeing as how the man in red had entered a frenzied battle with the other airborne Sacred Beast and people on the island were fighting the three which had made it there.

"No idea. Have you got any ideas on how to defeat the fiend in the ocean?"

"Defeat something akin to Sin? Yeah, right," Riven snorted.

"...Uh...Captain..." Genzo said, staring in shock.

She turned to look at where he was looking, which was out the window in the direction of the island—where a large number of strange beings which reminded her of Aeons were emerging from—somewhere—and spreading out across the island and ocean. One which resembled a variant of a Sacred Beast attacked the mountain Adamantoise, found it barely dented the surface, and wheeled to fly back to the island. Others of various sorts were attacking other enemies, healing the jet fighters or others of their allies, and still more were helping to move the survivors of the Shadowterra to the island.

Sanni could only watch in amazement as things played out in front of her.

FoW

Aeris and Karru heard the noise, the howl and the shrieks, and both knew it wasn't good. It was the younger girl who said, "The shrieks were Sacred Beasts—but that means more than one is heading this way."

"Sacred Beasts?" Aeris blinked at her. "That was the sound we knew as Dragons, the strongest of those the Dragon Zombie. Still, they sound powerful if they have a name like 'Sacred Beast'."

"They are—they're some of the strongest fiends in the world. I don't know about that weird howl, though," Karru replied, gaze worried. The male cat moved to her side and leaned against her, offering silent comfort.

"So what else's new, yo?" an eighteen-year-old man asked from near them, sounding annoyed.

"Are you sure you should be getting up, Reno?" Aeris asked him worriedly—she'd been tending him as his healer for a bit, and had learned his name in the process.

"I'm fine, Flower Girl," he smirked. "'Sides, we got our work cut out fer us, 'n' they need me back out there, yo."

They had no more time to talk as light flared from the top of Omega Rock, and they all looked up to see Tseng being wrapped in light, unmoving and quickly so thoroughly surrounded by light so bright he was obscured from view. The light quickly resolved into the general form and appearance of an Alexander, which then sprouted a massive set of wings. The wings folded over all of them, then spread wide and sent out a huge number of bolts of light, bolts which rained down around the island and ocean. From their position, they couldn't really see the effects of the bolts, but they could guess the Sacred Beasts the thirteen-year-old had mentioned hadn't liked them by the pained shrieks they let out.

As the last bolts were vanishing, the light faded and Tseng began falling slowly, as though he was being affected by Float, and everyone could only hope the effect would last until he reached the ground at the bottom of Omega Rock.

Their worry became moot as many, many lights formed around Omega Rock, one of those directly below Tseng. All of them formed into the shapes of Aeons, and most rapidly left the immediate area for whatever purpose they had appeared for. The one exception was the bubble which had formed below Tseng, as it took the form of a woman, like a fayth, who reached her arms up to catch the younger man, then dropped easily to the ground, her descent halting gently about a foot above it. She lowered herself the last foot softly, settling on the ground, then kneeling and holding Tseng against her like a mother would her child.

When she looked up at them, they could see that her eyes were oddly crystalline, clear and nearly devoid of color but with some sort of white light within them. "That was rather unexpected," she commented in an amused tone.

"Which part, yo?" Reno asked with a suspicious frown.

The woman smiled faintly and said, "I had not expected my son to have such a power hidden away in him. Half-Eidolon children normally are less—extravagant."

"Your...son? You mean you're a Summon and he's half? Of what?" Aeris asked in shock, not sure what to think. "And what's wrong with him now?"

"Alexander, of course," the woman replied in amusement. "I am an Alexander, so he would have to be half of that holy essence. The—well, it is not a transformation by that definition...His—Alexander aura reacted very strongly after many long years of disuse, giving him that—over-soul and reacting to his strongest desire at that time. The effect was as powerful as it was due to the lengthy build-up of energy within him, though it also forcibly expended all that built-up energy. He may take days to wake, even with me feeding him energy to replenish his supply—he technically expended more than he had to give while trying to protect you, little Child of Minerva."

Aeris' eyes widened in surprise at the words, but it was Karru who spoke, saying in shock, "But _people_ can't oversoul, only _fiends_ can oversoul! Is he a fayth, then, like you?" The others all looked at her in surprise for a minute, then Reno gave a snort.

Suddenly, a being Karru guessed was a Bahamut Aeon by its general looks landed right behind them and said, " _The monster in the ocean shall require Chaos and Zirconaide's strength to defeat. Find them to alert them. I go now to the far side of the island to assist in retrieving those of the downed airship from the ocean._ " The being then rose back into the air and flew away past Omega Rock.

"Uh..." Karru began, feeling royally confused. Aeons can't just decide on a whim to do something their Summoner hadn't told them to!

"Reno, do please find Chaos and Zirconaide's hosts," the woman fayth—at least, Karru thought she was, but her eyes weren't right for that—said. "Their positions may not give them a view of the danger, and I suspect you have no current idea who those hosts are to inform them another way."

"Hey, Lady, maybe it escaped your attention, yo, but if I ain't got any damned clue who they are, I can't tell 'em anyway!" Reno bit out.

"Oh, my," the woman blinked.

"Vant is Chaos," a pained voice said from nearby, and they all turned to look at a blond woman whose side was bleeding sluggishly as she held her arm tightly over it and her opposite hand at the worst-damaged spot.

"Oh, no!" Aeris gasped, running to her and immediately working on healing her.

"You alright, Emma?" Reno asked her worriedly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine with some healing," she answered in wan amusement. "But if you need to find Chaos and that—whatever the other one is—Vant is the best place to start. He probably knows who the other is."

"Why d'you know 'bout Vant?" the red haired man asked her in confusion, searching his pockets for his PHS—only to pull out a mangled scrap of metal and plastic. He gave a dejected sigh at it as he listened to Emma's reply.

"He dive-bombed the monsters attacking the Shinra building after Midgar's power went out," she replied, pain obviously easing up and allowing her to look more legitimately amused. "Gave us a bit of a reprieve, got rid of most of the aerial monsters, and took off to who knows where. I guess he ended up in the Slums with you? But it doesn't change the fact that he actually had transformed into Chaos at that point, so—go find him already!"

"Sure, yo," Reno grinned suddenly. "Thanks, Short-Stuff! Take care o' yourself, ya hear?"

She snorted as he took off in the direction Vant had headed in at Tseng's direction.

"Uh...Now I'm really, really confused. What's the Shinra building, and where's Midgar?" Karru asked, scratching the side of her head. As though she hadn't already been confused enough!

The blond woman met her gaze, letting her see blue eyes, as she said, "This isn't really the time to try to explain that—I've got to head back out as soon as I'm fixed up, and with the reprieve those bolts gave us, the Healers are about to be swamped with people in need of healing, so the Flower Girl won't have time to explain, either."

"...Why does everyone call her 'Flower Girl'?" Karru asked, that point a peeve she wanted resolved. It was clearly a title of some sort, but not something like her Aunt's title of 'Captain', so it made no sense. Nothing about these people made any sense.

"Because, for some reason, everyone knows I can grow flowers, very, very easily," Aeris replied in amusement. The wound on Emma's side had healed by then, so she looked up at her and asked, "How do you feel?"

"Fine. Thanks," Emma agreed, then rose and drew her volt-laser gun to check its power meter. "Over half so I don't need a replacement cartridge, either. Good." She gave Aeris' head a pat. "Thanks for the help. Looks like the next wave is coming in."

The two younger girls watched her walk away past many new, injured arrivals, then Karru sighed as Aeris got up and ran to them.

She then turned back to the woman with crystalline eyes and asked, "So do _you_ have time to answer questions, Lady—Alex?"

The woman gave a small chuckle and replied, "I was known as Hikari, the Wutain word for 'light', which is not normally used as a name. We have come here from another world once called Gaia. Wutains are those with appearances similar to my son's or my own—not my eyes, but my other features. The proper name for my kind is Eidolons, or Guardian Spirits, but humans who arrived on our world thousands of years ago found it simpler to refer to us as Summoned beings. At one time, they had known beings similar to us which they referred to as Aeons, or fayth." Karru's eyes widened at that, since it was one of the things she'd been really confused about being answered.

"However, we are not the souls of humans choosing to become a power for another, we are and were always spirits independent of those who may call for us. There are two types of Eidolons, those like myself, who are free-roaming, and those who have agreed to attach their souls to a fragment of planetary energy known as Materia so humans would be able to call upon them. Ones who are free-roaming, such as myself or that Bahamut type you saw before, are often quite aged and are able to take a human form at times, and we make our own decisions on what actions to take and when, like any human—no human commands us.

"Shinra is the name of a man, and of the Electric Power Company that man began and built into an empire. Rather, that was the name used by his family. His son is here now, fighting alongside them. His Company built a city known as Midgar, a massive area with a 'Lower Plate' also known as 'the Slums' overshadowed by the 'Upper Plate', a second layer to the city which was held over one hundred meters above ground by pillars. Upon the central support pillar sat the Shinra Company Headquarters, or what they called 'the Shinra building'. I had only been very vaguely aware of Chaos' presence in Midgar, as I had been in the Lifestream in a recovery state for several years already."

"...Oh. Wow..." Karru stared.

"That was rather informative for myself as well, though I had already known some of it," the male Moto leaning against Karru's side said.

Hikari smiled at him and nodded.

FoW

Eden and Felicia had been fighting since whenever during the night they had arrived on the island, though for some time, it had been a slow, leisurely battle if something happened to bypass the ridge. However, as the night wore on towards dawn, the battles had been getting more frequent, more demanding, and generally harder. The first real surprise they got was when they killed one monster and another of its kind which was nearby suddenly gained some sort of energy aura around it which was similar to a Limit Break. The one which had gained that energy aura also suddenly had enhanced abilities and skills very different from the others of its kind. If the others had been finding ones like that, too—they all had their work cut out for them.

Then, they'd heard the howl and shrieks, and saw the light flare at Omega Rock, and saw the bolts of light come down on the monsters around them. They'd had a Cuahl-like monster with white fur and black stripes in that strange, Limit Break-like state at the time, and while all the regular monsters around them were defeated by it, the one in that state wasn't. It had been badly damaged, and one blow from Felicia had finished it off, but that left them wondering what had just happened. Bubbles of light appeared by the Rock and took the forms of many Summons, all of which scattered over the area. A shriek not that far away sounded as near them one of the rib-cage monsters emerged from the water.

Eden offered to head for the shriek while Felicia dealt with the rib-cage monster. She agreed, so they parted ways.

As much as the rib-cage monster was never easy to defeat, the one in front of her seemed stronger than the others, and took her a few minutes of fighting to defeat. A moment after it went down, an almost shadowy, demonic being landed in front of her where the monster had been.

"Before you attack me, I am Vant, and also Chaos," the being said to her, and she blinked at him a few times before Zirconaide affirmed his identity.

"Okay, so why are you here?" she asked him, relaxing some as she recalled the man, the black haired Turk, who had helped her in the Slums during the monster attack.

"Apparently, there's a very, very powerful monster out in the ocean which requires our strength as Chaos and Zirconaide to defeat. Or so Bahamut told Reno," he replied.

"I see..." she blinked, then looked down at herself. "Will a hybrid form be enough, or will I need a full transformation?"

"If Bahamut was right, likely full," he answered. "How did you end up _as_ Zirconaide, though?"

She had to chuckle as she said, "Ask Eden." He blinked, and she drew in a deep breath as she worked out how to take Zirconaide's full form.

Soon after, she had grown much larger, turned mostly brown with some silver highlights, and was a veritable forest of spikes without definitive legs and with curved, metallic arcs in sets of three to either side of her which acted somewhat like wings. Once she was in that form, she could sense the location of the mass of evil, and as Chaos rose into the air, they both wheeled to fly straight to it.

 **Notes:**

No, it isn't actually a surprise or sudden for the Summons/Eidolons to suddenly appear. These are the free-roamers who have been mentioned before, so of course they would have been on the Omega body with everyone else. Minerva decided they were needed to help out, so she released them. That's all.


	42. 39-Working Together

Working Together

After parting ways with Felicia, Eden headed for the nearest Dragon-ish roar he could hear, and within a few minutes, had come upon the monster in question. Unlike the other Dragons he'd seen, it had ribbed, arcing wings more like Zirconaide's and many of its mostly grayish-black scales looked more like decorative gems in an actual design. It was easily a few feet larger at the shoulder than the Dragons he'd previously seen, and had a power level more akin to Bahamut's than to any Dragon or other monster. At the moment, he realized it couldn't fly due to damage to its wings, but its powerful claws, fangs, and magic more than made up for that. Oddly, there was also a floating ring circling its neck.

He could also see who was keeping its attention—Verdot, Balto, Elena (or was it Riona now? Hadn't Tseng said something about that in the video conference on the Highwind after the monster attack on Midgar?) and some Academy students doing what they could to hold off the monster from the SOLDIERs behind them. The Seconds were unconscious, and it was likely a few of them were dead, as well as the First who had been acting as their commander when the Dragon had come down. As a result, the Turks were clearly acting in capacity as diversions until help could arrive for the SOLDIERs, but the monster was proving both powerful and stubborn.

It also had the odd bubble around it indicating it wasn't a normal monster, it was one with differing and boosted abilities, which wouldn't have helped.

Nor did the other monsters still attacking them, all of which were also in that state.

The Turks didn't have much room to move, and Eden realized the Dragon had been charging some sort of magical attack for a while—something more powerful the longer it was charged. At that realization, he also knew he'd have to pull out all the stops, especially knowing the monster had a tough hide. A moment later, he'd clapped, then knelt to put his hands down on the ground, causing hundreds of stone spikes to surge out of the ground below the Dragon as the level of the land in the area sunk. The monsters—more than just the Dragon were in the area of effect—shrieked in confusion and rage, and many of them in pain as the spikes struck them.

Of all the monsters damaged, the Dragon was included, which thankfully interrupted its spell-casting. Unfortunately, the damage wasn't great, and Eden ended up finishing off more of the other monsters than he did damage to the Dragon, and his only real reason for not pitching a fit was because the spikes had effectively locked the Dragon in place and prevented it from either biting or clawing. That still left them the question of how they were going to beat the bloody thing when it was nearly impervious to damage.

"Eden!" Balto shouted over to him. "Fantastic timing!"

"If you say so," Eden called back, still feeling irritated by the Dragon's durability.

"Odds are much more in our favor now than they had been, so yes, we say so," Verdot replied in amusement, throwing a fireball at the Dragon's face.

"We 'students' will handle the others while you three get the Dragon!" Riona suddenly smirked, striking one bug-like monster in the throat with her foot—that ended up killing it, boosted or not—and shooting at another monster nearby. Eden shuddered when he realized it was a decorated Tonberry in that boosted state. The students readily followed her in attacks against the 'weaker' monsters as an amused Balto and Verdot dodged a magical attack from the Dragon.

"What about the SOLDIERs?" Eden asked as he let his Limit Break unleash on the Dragon, causing it to effectively be locked in a stone Iron Maiden for over a minute while it roared in pain.

"We're just waiting for some of the Guardians to get back, retrieve the ones who are still alive, and return them to Omega Rock for healing," Verdot replied, gazing in mild surprise at the massive, stone shell around the monster.

"Okay, then...I'm going to try to transmute its hide. Can you keep its attention off me until then?" the blond asked.

"You're going to _what_?" Balto asked in confusion, frowning at him.

He gave a small nod as he explained, "This world, like ours—both of ours—seems to largely be composed of the basic building blocks of elemental carbon, which is a highly variable material. That means the Dragon's hide is primarily composed of carbon, and I can make it as soft as ash or as hard as diamond. Since it's already the latter, I'd do the former—but it's a localized effect largely isolated to six inches or less in radius from the point of contact." (1)

"That's as good a plan as any," Verdot agreed as the stone prison began breaking. "You work on that and let me know when to hit the softened location. In the meantime, we'll keep it busy."

"You'll know—you'll see the flash when I transmute it," Eden replied in amusement.

"Fine, get working, then," Balto agreed in annoyance, jumping forward and through the spikes with enough speed and ease to strike the Dragon's snout. Apparently, even though his sword didn't cut the scales there, the location was a delicate one and the Dragon still felt it enough to give a pained whine and jerk back.

Between Balto and Verdot, the monster's attention stayed on them, and it was even more successfully diverted when the students and Riona rejoined the battle against it. In the meantime, Eden worked his way through the spikes from behind the monster, getting under its belly to come up under its chest and neck, a space mostly cleared of spikes by the monster's thrashing. The resulting debris was easy enough to clear without the Dragon noticing, and Eden quickly assessed both his best place to soften and his most likely escape route from under it.

A moment later, he clapped his hands together, then rested them on the Dragon's chest over its heart—the fastest way to kill it would be the heart. The flash and shocked roar from the Dragon warned him to _move_ , but as he began to pull away, he felt a tug on his pant leg and looked down to see one of the Dragon's front claws pinning it down. The Turks' attack was already underway, so he did the only thing he _could_ do—knelt as he clapped his hands and rested them on the ground.

FoW

Genesis had to stop and stare in shock as _an Alexander_ appeared where Tseng had been at the top of Omega Rock, followed by the massive array of bolts of light. He also saw those bolts target the monsters in the air, on the island, in the ocean, striking everything (or nearly) at least once. He also saw two of the decorated, 'Elite' Dragons dodge the attack, and seeing how the one across the island from him did so—by downing one of the airships—pissed him off. In his anger, he hit his Limit Break, but now was definitely _not_ the time for judgment, so he held off on using it.

Instead, he turned to face the Elite Dragon nearest him, the one still in the air by putting its own 'allies' in the path of the bolt meant for it, and flared with flames as he attacked it hard. As much as the Elite Dragon may have wanted to reach the island, he wasn't going to let it, would rather down it completely than let it add its attack power to those already on the island. The problem was that, when he tried the same trick he'd used on the Gargoyle breeds earlier to dissolve them, it didn't work on the Elite Dragon. That could have been because it was too big and he'd need a much larger array anchor, or because he wasn't quite using the same one he'd used on Nero, but either way, it meant he had to defeat it with his own power.

And they were so much more Elite than even the Dragon Zombies, meaning there was no quick way to defeat them. He felt more like he was back in the Northern Cave, fighting multiple Jabberwocks and Shadow Monks and Cerberuses and other monsters of that level. His combined magic and swordplay—and his tendency to target soft spots like the eyes—meant he managed to do it a good bit of damage and keep its attention on him. He was even cutting and burning into its hide with his uses of Flare.

However, as he was whittling away its ability to fight, he froze as something dropped onto the Elite Dragon's head, causing it to suddenly drop as the monster let out a shocked yelp and plunged towards the ocean.

As it hit the water and tried to orient itself again, Genesis looked up at the sound of a chuckle—and kept looking up. First, he saw a young man with flyaway, blond hair, blue eyes, and dressed in a yellow shirt with something similar to blue overalls. The man wore the same fixtures of jet propulsion as the others from the airships, but his boots and vest were in a gold and silver mix, which was different from the colors of the other airships.

Above the man, above the battlefield, above the island, he saw that a seventh airship had joined them. It was smaller than the first six, marginally, but had weapons as powerful and was in a markedly different design from the first six. If he was going to try to describe it, he might have said it looked like a type of highly-decorated fish. At least, from the bottom, it did. There were many layers to it, smaller ones towards the bottom and the largest he could see at the top (though there may have been more layers above that largest), and he could just make out some sort of disc-rim protruding off what he thought was the back of the ship. Its colors largely seemed to be gold, silver, purple, and burgundy red.

"You're pretty strong to be able to do that much damage to a Sacred Beast by yourself," the young man, who looked about twenty years old (2), commented, grinning widely. "Never seen anyone with wings before, though."

With a snort, Genesis replied, "So I've heard. I'm guessing you're from that ship up there?"

"Sure am! I hadn't been sure I'd be joining them, or that they'd even come here, but since the 'Terras commented about the fiend problem, I figured I should check it out. With the Shadowterra down, I'm glad we came. Want some help with the Sacred Beast?" the younger man asked with a grin.

Looking down at the menace as it struggled to get out of the water, Genesis snorted and replied, I think you've given me quite enough, thanks." He then dove at the monster, managing to slash its soaked wings to shreds before sending a Flare right into its head from its nearest eye. As the head fairly exploded in flames, the blond man gave an impressed whistle, but Genesis looked across the way to try to see Sephiroth—who was clearly in battle with the other Sacred Beast.

As his eyes passed over Omega Rock, however, he realized he couldn't see Tseng on top of it anymore. "Oh, that's bad," he said, and turned to fly in that direction worriedly—though his gaze followed the various Summons helping out in the area now as well. The blond followed him.

"Is something wrong?" the blond asked curiously.

"Yes—our main coordinator seems to be missing," the red haired man replied.

"Oh, that's not good." Genesis had to snort at the man's assessment. "What's with all the—what are they? Fiends? Aeons?"

"We call them Summons, though their official name is Eidolons—semi-physical spirits who sometimes deign to help us mere mortals out," the SOLDIER First quipped. The blond laughed, but didn't ask any more as they stopped above the shielded area and both scanned the ground below, where the Healers were working.

Suddenly, the blond blinked and asked, "Hey, is that Karru?"

"Yes, that's foolish Karru, who somehow thought it was a good idea to try to help out on this battlefield," the other man replied in amusement. "You know her?"

"She's—sort of like an honorary niece to me, I guess?" the man mused, then began dropping down towards where she was. Incidentally, she was sitting on the ground near the base of Omega Rock all of three feet from an unconscious Tseng, who was being held by a Wutain woman, even as she leaned against one of the Moto's sides.

When the two men landed and both women looked up in surprise, Karru jumped up with a grin and a shout of "Uncle Tidus!" as she rushed to hug him, though the Moto stayed where he was.

Genesis, on the other hand, met the Wutain woman's crystalline eyes—and blinked as he said, "Oh, Hellfire. We've just lost any further chance for our best coordinator's help, haven't we?"

The woman gave him an amused look, but admitted, "He will take a few days to wake."

With a heart-felt sigh, the red haired man pulled out his PHS and dialed Reno's number, saying immediately when it was answered, "Tseng's down for the count, so we need you as our coordinator. You'd better get back to Omega Rock."

"Will do," the Turk replied, then hung up.

Looking up at the blond man—apparently named Tidus—he said, "For the moment, it's best if we head to the downed airship to help rescue people."

"If the other Sacred Beast is down, sure," Tidus agreed readily. "Your buddies on the island are working on the three downed ones, so the one in flight is the last problem besides the fiend in the ocean." He let Karru go and used the jets to 'hop' back into the air. "Let's go." They both took off to head for where Sephiroth had been fighting the other airborne Sacred Beast near the downed airship.

FoW

The man had to sigh as he watched his Al Bhed battle partner flit around like she'd been born with jets on her feet. The two of them had gotten the reports from the Farterra of the massive fiend in the ocean about ten minutes before dawn, and being who they were, they had both agreed to go check out the beast. Making their way over had been fine, but they'd still had to fight fiends on the way, and with the sheer volume of battle around them, the number of fiends oversouling was making things difficult. Then again, he had to admit he preferred fighting fiends to fighting humans, something which happened all too often.

Of them, he was older, at about thirty-two to her twenty-five. Large and muscular, he had red hair which spiked at the front—though he had cut off the one especially long strand. He mostly wore yellow clothing, it having always been his favorite color, with loose pants which tied partway up the shin, a device similar to a tank top which was black and orange, and his basic blitzball gear. He'd never _stopped_ wearing those for some reason, though it had probably helped that he'd never stopped playing blitzball or fighting with a heavily-bladed blitzball. In addition to his usual clothing, he also wore the Farterra's jet gear, the boots and vest in dark purple.

The Al Bhed woman, who was his complete opposite (small and slender), had her long, blond hair in a high ponytail with two braided locks trailing from behind her ears, and the signature green eyes with the spiral pupil. She had only grown more skilled as a thief using daggers and bladed or clawed gloves—her dominant hand especially favored a blade which strapped on. As she'd gotten a little older (he'd met her when she'd been fifteen), she had chosen to wear green shorts nearly to mid-thigh with a rich, red-orange, button-up tank top. Like the larger man she fought alongside, she also wore the Farterra's jet boots and vest.

Both were frequent additions to the Farterra's crew—rather ironic, and appropriate, given their state as unsent. Admittedly, most of the Farterra's crew were just ordinary people, but the dynamic on board was significantly different from the other five airship cities run by the Al Bhed. During the early years of the Sundering, the Al Bhed of the Farterra had been working with the Guado on a means of moving the gate leading into the Farplane onto the Farterra, partly for investigative reasons and partly for its own safety. Several trials had been made to move the gate's location within Guadosalam, and one had just been made to move it to the Macalania Woods.

In all cases, the gate had maintained itself, though that was likely due to them having uprooted the land it was anchored in while keeping the gate whole. No one really wanted to see what would happen to it if they actually dismantled or broke it, so extreme caution had been used in every move. Then came the major devastation of the Sundering. In its onslaught, the Farterra had been at Macalania Woods, so they had simply made the decision to put the gate in the terrarium on board and have the Guado join them. They had proceeded to Guadosalam to collect the rest of the Guado willing to join them on board the Farterra.

The result had been a ship infused with pyreflies, infested by Macalania trees, and with a population nearly half composed of Guado. Had those Guado not gone on board the Farterra, their race would have died out within the first year of the major disasters—both Guadosalam and the Macalania Woods had been reduced to smoldering ash. The Farterra also tended towards attracting the highly unusual—some gentle fiends, several unsent from various eras, some beckoned. The people on board also tended towards the skills of magic use and Summoning, or 'sending', as it was also called these days.

It had been the fiends who had told them to head in the direction of that meteorite which had come down, saying 'it' was going to be attacked by a mass number of fiends. When asked why a meteorite was going to be attacked, the fiends had explained that it was no 'meteorite', it was a powerful entity which would lay most of the fiends to rest if they couldn't destroy it soon enough. Farterra's fiends had said they weren't worried for themselves, as the proximity of the gate allowed them to maintain themselves—which was also true of the beckoned and unsent, though some very strong of all of those types could maintain themselves regardless.

He and his battle companion hadn't even thought it possible they would dissolve by being too near the meteorite, reacting to the warning like any other human. As it had turned out, they counted amongst the 'strongest', who were remaining there for exactly the reason that they felt they _had_ to stay, their work wasn't done. They had fought hard when they saw the fiends swarming the area, but they hadn't stayed within the zone of the Farterra to fight. In fact, they had encountered the red and black warriors who had been fighting the fiends at the meteorite's location long before the airships had begun arriving.

Those winged humans...were they a new race? Fiends? Something else?

At that point, as the pair approached the 'mountain' in the water around dawn, it didn't actually matter.

After seeing what the mountain Adamantoise had done just with a howl as it raised its head from below the water, they knew it was powerful, deadly. The shock wave of the howl hit them and they both had to work at it to stay in the air as they partially rode it until it passed. Trading looks—he could only barely see her eyes through her goggles—they decided to try attacking it. They hit its head, and the Al Bhed woman even managed to cut into one of its huge eyes, but other than it closing the damaged eye for a minute, their attacks did it no harm at all.

When they had backed away, it was in time to see something like a winged machina shoot multitudes of bolts of light around the area, including one targeting the fiend in the ocean, as well as bolts targeting the Sacred Beasts which had joined them. The bolts weren't weak by any means—most fiends other than some in oversoul, a few especially powerful ones (Geos, Tonberries, Spellspinners, Garudas and a few others), and the Sacred Beasts were obliterated by them. The fiends which weren't killed out-right were significantly damaged, other than two of the Sacred Beasts which had put something else between them and the bolt intended for them—and the mountain Adamantoise. The most dangerous fiend of them all had barely been harmed...

They were hovering there as the lights forming Aeon-like beings appeared, and those beings began flying around to help in the battle, recover the Shadowterra's people, fish downed jet fighters out of the ocean, and generally be helpful. One of those, similar to a Sacred Beast—or what they recognized as a Bahamut variant—approached them and attacked the Adamantoise, only to find it doing very little harm, either. With a sound very much like a 'humph', it wheeled and flew back to the island. The two in the air traded looks again, wondering if that would be the end of the assault, but found they had to turn their attention to some of the airborne fiends which hadn't been destroyed by the bolts of light earlier.

Done with that, they returned to their hover position above and to one side of the fiend in the ocean, and the woman asked, "Do you think those things are Aeons?"

"They're similar, anyway, ya?" he asked in reply. "But are they planning to lend a hand here?"

"I hope so, otherwise we'll have to go all the way to Zan-Bev Fort to get Yunnie and Tidus. (3) And we'll probably have to get eaten again," she replied, pouting. "I don't wanna do that again!"

He looked back at the fiend, only to feel two powerful forces come up behind them—two forces which caused the Al Bhed woman beside him to yelp in shock and switch her position to one which left him between her and those forces. Turning, he had to blink at the two beings he saw—one dark, slender, and only a little taller than him with a body structure oddly like a Spellspinner's, and giving off a dark, blackish-purple light, and the other being much larger and many-bladed in brown with odd, silvery designs all over its body. If he hadn't been so shocked, he'd probably have attacked them before he heard them talk.

" _What do you think, Chaos_?" the mostly brown one asked in a feminine voice.

For a moment, the dark one was quiet, but then he replied, " _It has armor too powerful to pierce from outside._ "

" _...We have to get inside it_?" the female asked.

" _Not 'we'_ ," the male replied. " _I need you to damage and distract it while I get into its mouth and work from there_."

"And how will that work if the place is a bloody fortress?" the red haired man asked in irritation, realizing they were allies and sentient.

The two looked at him, then apparently at one another, before the male replied, " _Even if it is, it's composed entirely of energy, and my basic function is in dismantling energy. Zirconaide is more able to attack physical forms. However, a monster as powerful as this one may be able to counteract the damage I do to it if it realizes I'm doing it, so if she keeps it busy—I'll be able to work in peace._ "

"Hey! There will be other fiends inside it! Someone will _have_ to go in there with you to keep them off you while you work," the Al Bhed woman almost chirped as she moved to hover over the red haired man's shoulder. "If you can really tear it apart that way, I'll even go in there with you!"

" _If you're willing and it's true there are other dangers inside it, I would appreciate both of you going in there with Chaos,_ " Zirconaide said to the two humans. " _I'm in no danger here while in this form, but Chaos doesn't have the same safeguards I do._ "

"Then we'd better get this mission started, ya?" the man asked in faint amusement.

"Here's a tip—aim for its eyes!" the Al Bhed woman added cheerfully, turning to face the fiend again. "Come on, Wakka! We'd better get in close so we can get in quick!" she was already dropping down towards its mouth.

"Wait, Rikku!" Wakka yelled after her, then sighed as she cheered and attacked a stray Varuna which had been in oversoul. The fiend fell quickly, defeated.

" _How exuberant,_ " the female entity commented in mild amusement. " _I'll aim for the eyes. You two gentlemen had better go join her._ "

Chaos gave her an annoyed look, then nodded to Wakka and headed down to where Rikku was hovering. After glancing one last time at the female entity, Wakka quickly followed him down to where Rikku had stopped to wait for the time to be able to get inside the fiend. He had only just gotten there when the Adamantoise howled in agony, opening its mouth wide and harmlessly, and the three darted into the giant maw of the beast.

 **Notes:**

Yes, a couple of major cliffies here. Yes, I'm evil. At least you ONLY have to wait a week for another update. :P

(1) Everyone should know this as the method Ed used to deal with the first Greed's ability to make his body impervious. As such, it's still a viable combat strategy.

(2) I'll be explaining about the ages of the unsent later on.

(3) Assume that when Rikku says this, the Fahrenheit is only just arriving, and they haven't looked up to see it yet.


	43. 40-Fiend Grievance

Fiend Grievance

Eden sat quietly in his little stone shelter, what was effectively a bubble made of the spikes which had been nearest him when he'd realized he wouldn't be able to dodge. Outside the dark sphere he sat in, he could hear the Dragon roaring, and several times, it even made his shelter shake—as long as the barrier held, though, he knew he'd be fine while the others killed it. About five minutes later, things went mostly quiet outside the sphere, the silence punctuated only by occasional weapon shots and the battle sounds of minor monsters when applicable.

Thinking it was probably safe at that point, he quickly clapped and rested his hands on the top of the sphere to clear it out of the way cautiously. Unfortunately, the Dragon's foreleg was laying on top of his shelter, so he had to clear the stone to one side of its foreleg to allow him to exit.

"Eden!" Balto's voice came to him as he was wiggling free.

A moment later, he felt strong hands grabbing his arms and pulling him out from under the monster, then equally strong arms wrapping tightly around him in a fierce hug. The blond could feel the older man shaking as he just held him for over a minute, though he didn't think the man was crying. As much as it somewhat shocked and puzzled him, the younger of the two didn't really have the heart to tell the older off for the expression of caring and worry.

"Balto, you can let him go now," Verdot's amused voice came from nearby.

"After he pulled a stunt that reckless, I don't think that's an especially good idea," the black haired man replied acidly.

"What was reckless about being stuck on one of its claws and needing a different escape route than I had originally thought to use?" Eden asked in a dry tone, but didn't tell the older man to let him go. Balto wasn't extremely expressive in a physical sense, and for him to so openly hug Ed just showed how much he'd worried his 'older brother'.

"We thought you'd _died_!" the man replied harshly in a sharp tone.

The younger blond just sighed and shook his head, still being held tightly by the black haired man. "Was that everything in this area?"

"The Guardians and some SOLDIERs are now organized enough to run patrols in this area, and the Seconds we'd been protecting who were still alive have been returned to Omega Rock. Riona and the students have already volunteered to help with the stragglers, so we're free to head back ourselves if you wish," Verdot agreed.

Drawing in a deep breath, Balto released the younger blond and took a step back from him, pushed up his glasses, and said, "I think heading back is currently the best option from here. Eden?"

"Sure, I could use a break if things are under control here," the younger Turk agreed. "I was already fighting tons of these guys with Felicia."

Both older men nodded and the three headed for Omega Rock, a place which took some minutes to reach, but where they could clearly see that the dynamic had changed. Many of the Healers had moved to sit by the main rock, the Moto Tribals were more obviously patrolling the perimeter, Godo, Reno, and Sephiroth were coordinating plans, Tseng was unconscious, and there was a brown haired girl and a Wutain woman by them who were both unfamiliar. As they were approaching, Shears and a mussed Rufus ran up to join Godo, Reno, and Sephiroth.

It was Reno who happened to notice them first, and the red haired eighteen-year-old called, "Eden, Veld! Got some extra advice on what else we gotta get done, yo?"

"I'm sure you can figure that out," Eden replied dryly. "What happened to Tseng?"

"Apparently, he is a half-Summon, and expended a great deal of energy by using those bolts of light to strike down the monsters," Sephiroth replied tiredly with a small sigh. "I believe the worst of the monster attack is over, which largely leaves the final sweep, guards around the island perimeter, and rescuing those on the downed airship. Or those who were unlucky enough to fall into the ocean while in combat with the airborne monsters. The Summons are voluntarily assisting with those while we wait for word on the extremely large monster in the ocean some distance away. Apparently, Vant and Felicia are seeing to it. Genesis and Sora have already been dispatched to assist with the rescue, and Angeal is largely taking the patrols. There are other assorted individuals assisting with the final sweep, guard duty, and the rescue."

"That should cover everything for the moment, other than possibly what we'll do for food," Verdot commented.

"We'll need help from the airships for that, unfortunately," Rufus sighed. "That battle was far from simple, though I would have to say the Northern Cave was comparable. Regardless, I'd rather not do it again anytime soon. We still don't have any clear answer on who that Wutain woman and the stranger-girl are, though."

"I _told_ you! My name's Karru, and I'm from the Aeroterra, where my Aunt's the Captain!" the girl put in, sounding irritated.

Godo chuckled and agreed, "Yes, we know that, Karru. However, with our current lack of context, that answers very little for us. Perhaps your Aunt will be better able to answer some questions?"

"No, that would be Uncle Tidus," Karru replied in amusement. "Or, since the Farterra is here, too, Auntie Rikku or Uncle Wakka would be good, too. The best one to answer any questions, though, would be Auntie Yuna. You'd have to go all the way to Zan-Bev Fort to see her, though."

The others all blinked at her in surprise for a moment, then gave heart-felt sighs before turning back to Eden, Balto, and Verdot. Godo said, "The Wutain woman is Lady Hikari Kaoin, Tseng's esteemed mother and an Alexander Summon in human form. We always knew in Wutai what she was, but extensive damage to a Summon forces them into a recovery state, in her case, a very prolonged one—both Tseng and myself should have been dead by the time she was able to return. Now, however, she seems to have fully recovered."

"How long—estimated number of years—should it have taken her to recover?" Eden asked with a surprised blink. Rufus, Verdot, Balto, and Shears looked equally surprised.

"Over a hundred," the Emperor answered.

"Then—shouldn't we actually assume that wherever we are or how we got here, it took more than a hundred years for us to get here?" the blond asked in a dry tone.

"But we haven't aged," Reno frowned in confusion.

"Ever hear of stasis?" Eden replied, that time sounding amused. "Minerva said something about that once—we'd go with her, but in stasis to preserve us, if she had to resort to using Omega, and, well, she had to resort to using Omega."

The others looked at him thoughtfully, then gave nods. Reno said, "Fine, if that's what we've got ta work with, that's it, yo. I'll stay 'n' coordinate, and you lot oughtta start movin' the folks off that downed airship ta here for the Healers to work on. Head over..." He paused to take a quick look around, then pointed in one direction which, by the direction of the sun, indicated a northeastern direction. "That way, yo."

"Very well," Sephiroth agreed, then took to the air to head in that direction, even as the others started walking more slowly towards the northeast.

FoW

Genesis was finding that his wings made him a great deal more maneuverable and agile than the jets of the fighters from the airships, despite his gangly wingspan. The fighters took up less space, but couldn't move around as easily, while he took up more space and could still make pretty much all the same motions as a normal human on flat ground. As far as getting people out of the twisted metal of the Shadowterra went, that was a good thing, especially since he could easily and quickly call and dismiss his wings. That meant he could get into tight spaces the jet packs of the fighters wouldn't fit in to clear deeper areas of the ship.

On their way to the Shadowterra, Genesis and Tidus had both stared in shock as Sephiroth had hit his Limit Break, then had proceeded to slice the Sacred Beast to ribbons so it could fall into the ocean. When the silver haired man had headed for the island, the two of them had proceeded with their plans to assist with the rescue efforts the people with blue and black jet gear were mounting over the remains of the Shadowterra.

 _The worst part_ , Genesis thought to himself as he worked his way through the bowels of the sunken ship, _Is how some of the areas are already filled with water, and I can't get to anyone on the other side safely._ Finally, as he returned to the most stable hull tear to hand off an injured woman to one of the fighters, he pulled himself free of the hole as he thought of a better, and hopefully faster, way to handle the immediate rescue.

He switched off Neo Bahamut with Bahamut ZERO and called, "Bahamut ZERO, come to me!" When the Dragon appeared, it was dark and steely, heavily armored, three times as large as Bahamut and Neo Bahamut, and eerily still and steady. "Would it be possible for you to lift this downed airship and move it to land, or close enough to land to drain the water from it? We can't reach all the trapped people as things are right now."

Tidus dropped down beside him and commented, "That's a good idea, if you're willing, Bahamut." The blond was looking at the large Summon in awe as he spoke.

With a sound like a 'hmph', Bahamut ZERO craned his neck to look around in all directions, then flew in a tight circle to hover over the segment of the airship Genesis and Tidus stood on, facing the island. " _I cannot lift the whole of the vessel, only this one shattered piece of it. Some pieces are too deep below the surface for me to retrieve._ "

The two men traded looks, then the blond called to the Dragon, "This piece is the most important one, the one where the secure rooms for the civilians were, so even just moving it will be a huge help. Thank you!"

With a nod-like motion, the Summon reached down two clawed forelegs and grasped the most secure beams and fixtures he could reach, then heaved. His massive wings beat rapidly and so harshly the wind they generated forced down the water level around the segment of the airship. In the process, Genesis and Tidus were knocked off their perches and had to catch themselves, but the piece of the airship they were most worried about gradually began rising. As it did, water poured out of holes in its hull, further lightening it so Bahamut ZERO could carry it to the beach. He set it down as gently as he could with only a small segment of it sitting in the water before being propped on the ridge around the island. He then dissolved.

"That was a good idea!" Tidus grinned at the red haired man.

"About the other parts..." Genesis began.

"I'm going to have to give you my jet gear so I can go for a swim—I can hold my breath underwater for a very long time, so just in case there are any air pockets with survivors in any of them—I'll go look. You'll need to take anyone I find to land so I'll be able to go back under," Tidus said right away. He lowered himself to another hull piece which was only barely above the water's surface.

"Okay," the red haired man agreed, landing beside him. Tidus quickly stripped off the vest and boots, then dove into the water, leaving Genesis to wait alone—until Sephiroth landed beside him.

"How is the rescue coming?" he asked.

"We've mostly got things under control now that we've gotten the civilian safe-zone—or what _should_ have been a civilian safe-zone—over to the beach. Tidus is looking for any possible survivors who weren't in the safe-zone, and if he finds anyone, we'll have to get them to land," the red haired man explained.

"Have you got an Underwater Materia?" Sephiroth asked in a suddenly dry tone.

"Uh...No, not on me..." the older of the two blinked.

With an amused expression, Sephiroth handed him a purple Materia which Genesis found was called Underwater, making him grin in reply. The silver haired man explained, "With that, you should be able to assist the underwater search while I find some of those fighters to wait on anyone you or—Tidus—return to the surface. Apparently, we will need Tidus' assistance later as well, to orient ourselves."

"Okay, then," Genesis agreed with a grin, switching off several of his Materia so he could have appropriate underwater skills available along with the Underwater Materia, then dove in to head for one of the pieces which was deepest underwater.

FoW

"This place is even more creepy than Sin!" Rikku exclaimed as the three stood at the junction which was most likely the base of the Adamantoise's throat.

"Ya got a point..." Wakka added in an oddly demure, absent tone, his eyes unfocused.

" _Sin has an appearance?_ " Chaos asked in mild amusement. He could see what they meant about it being creepy, though.

They were standing at the bottom of a massive, hollow cylinder filled with level upon level of moving, shifting parts. The bottom floor was flat, and there was a strange dome in the middle of the floor, large enough to be a room—or several of them—apart from the cylinder. The floor was black, as were many of the larger parts of the walls, moving or unmoving, but white offset the black on the walls, and the dome was entirely white. He'd have said it resembled a machine, or an engine, or even piano keys, but there was something bony, fleshy, and entirely not mechanical about it, and the cylinder itself was the least eerie part of what he could see.

Fixed in solid places all over the walls, floors, and likely the ceiling (they couldn't see the top of the cylinder, though), there were things like heads, chests, and arms of people. They were mummified as far as he could tell, shriveled and nothing more than skin, bone, cloth scraps, and random bits of hair—he'd almost call them wraiths in stasis. He was able to pick out men, women, and children, though oddly, the vast majority of them seemed to be female. Mothers, something told him. Most of them were in a dark, grayish-rosy color which was oddly eerie in the mostly white and black structure around them.

"Not that kinda 'sin'," Wakka told him, gazing around warily. "We ain't talking about things like greed or sloth, we're talking about the most evil and destructive fiend to exist. It was called Sin. Well, Null was as bad, but Sin was effectively its ancestor, so..."

Chaos' brow rose as he looked at the man, but Rikku cut in worriedly as she said, "Hey, guys—"

She was cut off by the sound of a ball hitting the floor and bouncing in their direction a few times before it began rolling. When it stopped, it was at Wakka's feet.

His expression was wounded as he asked, "A blitzball?"

As though the words were a trigger, hundreds of blitzballs suddenly rained down on them, producing yelps from the three. Chaos sent out a wave of dark energy, and while it dissolved the blitzballs, it didn't even _touch_ the floor or walls. And the reprieve was temporary at best, as only moments later, hundreds more blitzballs were falling on them. Only that time, dolls began being mixed into the mess, at least four different types—Chaos managed to identify something like a moogle and something like an inanimate cait sith, as well as something which could have been a humanoid hedgehog and one which might have been a humanoid insect relative.

"We have to get into the heart of the being—that dome!" Rikku shouted while shielding her head from the onslaught of children's toys.

"Ya!" Wakka agreed as he made a sudden full-body motion which pretty much sent all the blitzballs in their immediate surroundings away from them.

" _Let's fly for it!_ " Chaos called as he sent out another wave to dissolve all the falling toys again.

The other two didn't need to be told twice, and as soon as everything was out of their paths, they all flew for the dome, reaching it in record time. With toys falling again and them needing to find a door, Chaos had to use the wave once more to clean things up. It didn't take too long to find the door, thankfully, and getting inside meant they were safe from the assault of the falling toys. It also meant they were able to see clearly through what were apparently glass walls to the falling toys outside, and even forward to the middle of the facility. The route to the middle, where there was some sort of—statue? Machine?—which probably controlled the fiend, was not linear. Well, it may have been 'linear' in the sense that it would have been a single path, but it was a spiral.

Clearly, it was meant to be an obstacle, if only one of time.

"Well, this sucks," Rikku pouted. "What's with all the toys, though? Fiends don't normally give a damn about something like that—they're usually more the kind of thing a beckoned or unsent would have an attachment to."

"...A lotta mothers've died over the years, ya?" Wakka asked softly, that odd expression on his face again. "Maybe this fiend—maybe it's formed by _them_."

Rikku gaped at him for a moment, then suddenly looked ill. "I _so_ didn't need to think about something like my mom maybe being part of this—thing."

The older man huffed, but before he could say anything, Chaos said, " _Look there._ "

Following his gaze down the long, curving hall, they suddenly shuddered as over a dozen—fiend-child-like-looking beings tottered around the corner, girls and boys, their eyes like sunken pools of darkness and warped, darkened skin which was more like the fiend's hide than actual skin. A couple of the girls carried dolls, a couple of the boys carried blitzballs (and vice versa), but most of the children carried blades—knives, daggers, swords, one even had a spear. As one of the boys bounced his blitzball on the ground, spikes popped out of it, making all of them rethink the thought that a few of them _just_ had _toys_. They didn't have toys; they had weapons.

Rikku gasped, looking sick, as Wakka looked wounded and grim, and Chaos said softly, " _This is quite the disturbing parody of motherhood and childhood._ "

"Ya," Wakka agreed softly. "We've gotta fight, though. We'll never get to the middle if we don't."

"Can _the two of you fight this?_ " Chaos asked softly.

"This—disgusting fiend!" Rikku suddenly howled, charging forward to attack the children with all the viciousness she was capable of. Her obvious stealth skills showed as she would vanish from view, only to reappear behind one to slice brutally into the back of her target's neck.

"It's not a matter of 'can' we, it's a matter of doing what we must...to preserve our own sacred memories of our families," Wakka told Chaos, then gave his own bladed blitzball a flip and toss. As it came down, he kicked it right into one of the girls' heads, and as it bounced back to him, it cut down a boy as well.

The 'children' weren't that hard to defeat, but as they were finishing with those, they found a much stronger enemy, that one a parody of a mother, assaulting them. It took some help from Chaos to defeat her, but with how all of them were feeling right then, moving forward took some effort.

They walked silently, only talking when they ended up in battle. All of the battles were the same—between seven and fifteen of those warped parodies of children followed by a warped parody of a mother. By the time they got to the central chamber, they'd fought about ten or eleven of those battles, and Rikku was struggling not to cry. They had one more battle against three 'mothers' with no children when they stepped into the room, but once those three had been dealt with in the same way as the other 'mothers', it didn't take much to reach the object in the middle of the room.

It was a statue of a woman holding a child in her arms and surrounded by flames, all of it done in that same dark, grayish-rosy color the other 'wraiths' had been done in. The features weren't clear, but Wakka drew in a sharp, pained breath and gave his head a shake.

"Wakka?" Rikku asked him worriedly.

Shaking his head again, the man said, "No, nothing. Fire—burning a woman and child—brought back a bad memory. A very bad memory." He turned to Chaos and said, "If your power won't work out there, it should work here. We'll keep watch."

Chaos inclined his head and faced the statue as the other two flanked him and kept a sharp eye on the surroundings. Extending his power towards the statue in a focused beam, he did indeed find it slowly dissolving, so increased his energy output much the way he'd done to Hojo/Jenova. Something distantly howled, and something nearby shrieked, but he kept his attention on the statue as Rikku and Wakka fought anything—more of those twisted children and mothers—which appeared to try to attack him. He honestly felt as ill as they did by what he was seeing, and he kept thinking about Sephiroth, Qliphoth, and Lucrecia—how much of a parody of them this was.

How close he'd come to having Qliphoth become this same sort of destructive parody if Minerva hadn't chosen to help him that day.

No, this wasn't something he could leave alone, but not because of _memories_ , because of the living people he still cared for.

So he kept working to dissolve the statue and let the other two handle the rest. He could only work so quickly, and the statue was resistant to being dissolved—though he found something very physical in the process of dissolving it, an item which clattered to the ground. He didn't have time to look, but he was vaguely aware of Wakka gasping and picking up the object to put it away in his pocket before going back to the battle. The closer the statue came to dissolving, the more the structure around them shook and broke apart, faint trembles beginning at about the half-way point.

When only about ten percent of it was left, the cylinder's structure began collapsing in pieces around the building they were in, and at five percent remaining, the outer shell began breaking apart. Floating lights were surging around them, trying to coalesce again into something, or trying to make their way into the three intruders. Chaos' aura energy was keeping them back from the three, but sometimes enough of those lights managed to gather and solidify into another monster for them to fight. He'd have compared them to pyreflies, except that they weren't light, gentle, peaceful, and temporary—they were energetic, harsh, angry, and seemed to just _stay_.

Finally, the last of the statue was dissolved—and the entire fiend collapsed into those bits of energy and scattered, blocking their sight of anything around them for several minutes, their only saving grace having been logic. The Adamantoise's head had been below the water's surface unless it lifted it, so by default, they had been below the water's surface with the statue, and they had all instinctively shot upwards with those energy lights as the fiend broke apart. As such, they missed death-by-drowning, something they would never have managed without the realization of just _where_ they had been inside the monster compared to what was outside it.

As the energy dissipated, they looked up and around, seeing Zirconaide nearby, the airships hovering in an unstable way which meant they were damaged, and the island—

The crater rim had shattered around the third of the island closest to where the monster had been, water had swamped the land, and many, many people had been dragged out to sea.


	44. 41-Tidal Recovery

Tidal Recovery

Zirconaide only vaguely realized the battle was over as she watched the result in horror. Her battle had been strangely long in her mind, but had probably only lasted about half an hour, even as they had exchanged energy attacks which mutually did little damage. It was a bit like male muscle posturing, but with energy which did neither of them any real harm rather than a show of muscles or a fistfight. But when the monster had suddenly started _falling apart_ , it had gone into a panic frenzy and unleashed a massive, damaging howl she'd probably describe as a sonic boom followed closely by thrashing which caused a large tidal wave. She could only watch as the island and the airships suffered for it before the monster dissolved.

"Oh, no!" Rikku gasped at the sight of the destruction, only just in her hearing range. She hadn't realized they were there—the only thing she'd been aware of behind her had been the veritable pillar of energy the monster had dissolved into.

Chaos flew up to stop just behind her, then asked, " _What happened here?_ " Wakka and Rikku joined him there, presences she sensed rather than saw.

" _The Adaman's death throes...caused a sonic boom followed closely by a tidal wave,_ " Zirconaide answered tersely. " _The boom destabilized or downed nearly everything in the air, the wave..._ " She drifted off and motioned at the island.

"We need to help those people!" Rikku said, dropping downward.

Wakka quickly reached down a grabbed her arm. "We _need_ a plan and a place to take them all to, ya?" She stared at him, but didn't try to move away, so he cautiously released her arm.

Chaos frowned for a moment as he eyed the island area, then shot towards it—and stopped to stare at the middle and far side of it. The side of the island facing the monster had suffered a lot of damage—up to the barrier around Omega Rock. Nothing inside the barrier had been touched, and apparently, nothing past it, to the far side of the island, had been touched. As far as he could tell, that included the place where the downed airship survivors had been being gathered in the rescue attempt. They had a fair bit of safe ground they could take people to, and the greater worry in his mind was whether or not the engineers would be able to keep the other airships aloft.

Flying back to the other three, he said, " _We have space—the safe-zone in the middle of the island is intact, as is nearly everything past that. The people from the downed airship are safe, as are the majority of our people. The ones we need to rescue are the ones washed out to sea or those whose jet gear wasn't able to keep supporting them with the boom, most of whom fell into the ocean. How can we get sufficient support for that?_ "

" _Give me a moment?_ " Zirconaide requested. Chaos nodded. She closed her eyes and asked with her mind, _:Minerva, are you able to do anything to lend a hand here?:_

 _:What is the situation you require my assistance with?:_ the woman replied immediately.

 _:The most dangerous of the fiends caused a huge amount of destruction and many people have been swept out to sea. We need to retrieve as many as we can before they drown. Much of the island is still intact, so it's really more the people—we have a place to take them to,:_ she explained.

 _:The simplest solution would be for me to request the Eidolons to retrieve as many people as possible...Perhaps if I send the Leviathans to the more distant reaches of where people were swept to, they would have the greatest luck retrieving them. I shall inform the Cetra to ask those with 'Summon Materia' to send out their Eidolons to assist as well. You would be best to directly assist in retrieving people,:_ Minerva offered with only a moment's thought.

 _:That would help a lot. Thank you,:_ Zirconaide replied in some relief. She then turned back to Chaos, Rikku, and Wakka and said said, " _Minerva has communicated directly with the Eidolons to request that they—especially ones like Leviathan—assist in collecting the wayward humans and Motos who ended up in the ocean. We'll also help them. The island is our destination for now._ "

"So basically, go pick someone up out of the ocean and drop them on the dry part of the island, then rinse and repeat, right?" Rikku asked, just to be sure.

" _That's right,_ " Chaos agreed, then wheeled to shoot straight down at the ocean to retrieve two people from there.

Zirconaide released a sigh and said, " _This form is rather deadly—and would defeat the purpose._ " As Rikku and Wakka watched in amazement, she shifted, shrunk, and took on the hybrid form which was mostly human, let her sheath the sword blades in her hands, and was only about Chaos' height. " _Better,_ " she said, then slid the blades in her hands into her 'blade belt' and shot down to the water's surface as well. Rikku and Wakka quickly followed her after trading shocked, amazed looks.

FoW

Karru walked quietly through the bustle of people and—Summons as they retrieved as many as they could from the ocean. Beside her padded the Moto Tribe male, who had finally told her his name was Danato, following her as she headed past the barrier and into the zone hit by the tidal wave. Most of the water had drained back into the ocean, but she was left staring in stunned horror at the destruction the wave had left behind. Broken trees, random ocean debris, salt, pock-marks...

Before she'd seen this, she had been born and raised on the Aeroterra, above and outside the damage the world had suffered from fiend attacks and the Sundering. At times, she'd gone to the few established fortresses able to maintain themselves, like the Zan-Bev Fort and Mt. Gagazet, but those had been protected places where the kind of destruction she was seeing now never happened—like having stayed with Auntie Yuna for a few years. While she knew, and had always known, many parts of the world had become uninhabitable, she had never once seen what that _meant_ , always having lived above the clouds and never being able to clearly see the surface.

The reality of the damage, the harm, the death right in front of her, had shaken her and her perception of the reality and world she lived in.

She'd seen some of the Aeroterra jet fighters dead, as some had fallen onto the island or been thrown onto it by the tidal wave. The wave itself had created an image of repeated terror in her mind, replaying itself as she saw that massive wall of water bearing down on her, only to have it break on the barrier around the safe-zone.

That hadn't helped anyone outside the barrier, even just by a couple feet.

Reno had been dragged back out to sea with the wave, his only saving grace for survival the fact that he'd had the ability to grab a tree root on the way. By the time he'd made it back to the barrier, eyes haunted, clothing soaked and torn, Karru had been frozen on the spot. What got her moving again was hearing him shouting orders to mount as much for healing and rescue as they could with the resources they had. This time, she wasn't being kept behind the barrier—there pretty much weren't fiends left to fight—but she also wasn't really sure she wanted to go exploring anymore.

Despite that, Karru had decided she'd be better off out of everyone's way, so she'd headed into the flood zone, Danato following her.

The ground was uneven, making it hard to walk, but she kept wandering absently, and she began to wonder how horrible the mess would be—how much more devastating it would be—if it had been Zan-Bev Fort or another town hit. The image she conjured in her mind wasn't pretty—it was more like the pictures she'd seen on their History Spheres of war, or Sin's and Null's attacks. This was actually mild compared to some of those, but it didn't make the death or destruction any less horrifying.

As she turned to look to the side when she saw something shining in the sun, she thought she should see what it was, since only people could have been producing a shine like gleaming metal. Making her way over carefully, she climbed onto a nearby rock—and froze as she stared at the sight that met her eyes.

A tree with a large, sturdy trunk and many strong branches had been pulled up by its roots by the tidal wave and fallen onto its side, many of its branches broken. They were near the shore right then, and it showed in the pool of bloody, murky water below the tree...And by the man dangling off one of those broken branches. No, 'dangling' was the wrong word. He'd been speared through the chest by the branch, just to the side of the front core of the jet vest, and had hit the branch so hard the metal had been no protection. He faced the sky, arms and legs dangling where they'd fallen, eyes wide and unseeing.

She knew him! That was Tarric, the one who had been helping her learn to fight!

Scrambling from her perch, she ran to the tree and climbed up high enough to reach his neck, part of her hoping maybe he wasn't dead, but most of her already knowing he was. As she felt for his pulse—and found none—she realized there were already tears streaming down her cheeks. The lack of pulse caused her first to sob, then scream some wordless scream of pain, and finally, to drop to her knees on the fallen tree trunk as she wrapped her arms around herself and wept.

 _This_ was battle? This was war? And somehow, people wanted to go through this pain every single time they started some sort of war? She was beginning to see why 'Uncle' Wakka had stayed around as an unsent. Even just seeing this in a natural disaster was bad enough, but for people to do it knowingly to one another...

Guilt suddenly sprang to the fore as she remembered all the people on the Aeroterra who had died over the years, and how she'd been so detached from it. She'd barely even noticed they were dead. It was only now, when she could see someone she knew and cared about dead, that she realized how callous she'd been to all the others who had died and to those left behind.

No wonder they had been so adamant she not be allowed onto the battlefield, even Auntie Rikku, who had been on the battlefield since she'd been younger than Karru.

Weight at her back, leaning against her, helped ground her. Danato quietly said, "Death is an unfortunate part of life. Karru, release all of that hurt you feel right now, let it all out. You are not alone."

She leaned against him, turning her body to wrap her arms around the soft, furry creature, and let her tears fall into that soft fur. She wept until she just didn't have any more tears to let out, then just leaned tiredly against Danato, not having the strength to move.

It was some time before a voice nearby literally made her jump out of her skin and look up—at Aunt Sanni. "Why are you outside the safe-zone, Karru?" the woman asked sharply, something in her tone making the girl's heart ache.

"They said there were no more fiends, so I didn't have to stay in it," she replied dully.

"So they let you suffer seeing _this_ instead?" the woman asked as she dropped down to the trunk on Danato's far side.

"No offense, but she's going to have to see the reality of the world eventually," another familiar voice put in, making all of them look above and to one side, where a familiar, red haired and gray-winged man hovered.

"Genesis..." Karru said, and his gaze turned to her.

"We let you wander away because you have a babysitter and frankly, the rest of us were busy. Don't think we're particularly happy by having you wander in the flood zone, though," Genesis said evenly, then looked back at the older woman. "Are you the Captain of the Aeroterra?"

"I am," Sanni agreed evenly.

"Good. We need food supplies—we're all running on fumes and don't have any of our own right now. Whatever you and the other airships can spare will be appreciated. Otherwise, you might want to start retrieving your people and finding places for the people of the downed airship," the red haired man told her bluntly. "We'll be able to talk after we've saved as many as we can and all gotten some rest."

"Then I should take Karru back to the Aeroterra," Sanni replied. "I can arrange some supplies to be sent to you when I get there."

"But..." the girl began, not really knowing what she was going to say, yet somehow not wanting to just not say anything. With how angry Aunt Sanni looked just then, she was sure she'd be overruled, anyway.

When Genesis met Karru's gaze, his eyes had a faint expression of both amusement and determination, and he asked her bluntly, "After everything you've seen here, is it your wish to return to the relative safety of the airship, Karru?"

"It isn't as though she has a choice," Sanni put in, the sound as brittle as dry leaves in the Bikanel Desert.

The tone caused Karru's shoulders to hunch a bit, about to just—give in—but it was Danato who told Aunt Sanni bluntly, "You cannot undo what she has seen and experienced, and treating her as an unruly child _now_ would be detrimental to both of you, and to your relationship with one another. Regardless of some of her behaviors, she no longer belongs in the category of a 'child', and has the right to choose to follow through with this path or not, as an adult, not a child."

The words actually caused the older woman to stumble, her eyes wide, before she straightened and asked sharply, "Even though she was here when she shouldn't have been, and even your own children have been hidden away?" The response implied that she'd been more shocked by Danato talking to her like any other human or Ronso, rather than by what he'd said.

"Don't count on that," a new voice put in, and all of them looked over at two fourteen-year-olds, both blond, a boy with blue eyes and a girl with brown. The boy was in the buckled uniform of the sword fighters in pale blue, and the girl was in the black and white clothes of the ones like Reno and Emma. The girl also showed signs of having been caught in the tidal wave, with torn, soaked clothes, injuries, and general exhaustion, as she leaned heavily on the boy beside her.

"Third Strife, aren't you supposed to be with Sephiroth's unit on the far side of the island?" Genesis asked in confusion.

The blond boy lifted his shoulders in a shrug and replied, "The General diverted most of us to searching the flood zone for survivors. I'm glad, since it means I found Riona before she drowned with the rising tide."

"What happened?" he asked, eyes focused on Riona.

"We helped fight one of those big Dragons—myself, Balto, Veld, Eden, and several Academy students," Riona began, pulling in a deep breath, then grimacing. "Then we stayed by the shore to clean up the last of the monsters, and were only barely in the tree line when the tidal wave came up. It—wasn't pretty...There are only three survivors, two of the students and myself, unless you guys have been finding any who were washed out to sea. I only survived because one of the up-rooted trees was dragged down to the water line and anchored itself there, then I got stuck on it...Under it. I couldn't get out, and my right leg is pretty buggered up right now. I'm glad Cloud came when he did."

Genesis grimaced, then sighed and turned to Danato to say, "It might be easier if you carry her back to the Healers on your back, if you're willing?"

Danato swiveled his head to look at Karru for a long moment before asking, "Will you be fine if I leave you with the Commander, Karru?"

She wiped her eyes, then gave a small nod and replied, "Yeah, I think so." She then released him, and he gave her chest an affectionate rub with his shoulder as he rose and jumped down to where the two fourteen-year-olds were. It didn't take long for Riona to climb on his back, clearly favoring her right leg, and for the two to head away, even as something clicked in Karru's mind which caused her to comment, "She looks a lot like Emma."

Cloud and Genesis both looked amused as Cloud said, "Emma is her older sister. They're both Turks since a couple months ago. And, well, Turks have an oddly high survival rate, even though they get the suicide missions all the time."

"How old are you?" Sanni asked the boy suddenly.

"Fourteen," Cloud replied evenly. "By our standards, I'm legally an adult, and I've chosen my path—to be a SOLDIER, to fight to protect people, even if that means sometimes killing others. I was in a monster attack not long ago which was worse than what I've seen here so far—one of my best friends lost her arm in the attack, just to start. Karru isn't much younger than me—she's old enough to learn how to deal with what she's seeing now that she's seen it. She made the choice to join the battle, so she has to live with the consequences, no matter how you see her."

For a long moment, the older woman met his gaze, seeing how he was notably upset, but was handling it like any adult sent to deal with a disaster or disaster relief. It wasn't unusual for thirteen and fourteen-year-olds in Spira to take on adult jobs or roles, though it also wasn't encouraged. It was also true Sanni couldn't help Karru 'un-see' what she'd seen and experienced since leaving the safety of the airship, and she'd always known Karru needed to experience things personally in order to learn anything remotely beneficial.

Up until then, she and everyone on board the Aeroterra had been keeping her sheltered and hidden from the harsh realities of the world around them, mostly in the hopes that she wouldn't get herself killed if she wasn't able to do certain things. The number of times Karru had done something foolish or dangerous despite their attempts had only given them more motivation to keep her sheltered until she learned to grow up at least enough to recognize the danger. However, with the presence of others very close in age to Karru who were mature and participating in the battle and rescue operations, and those people supporting Karru rather than her guardian, she knew she would have a very, very hard time keeping the girl on the Aeroterra if she took her back.

Finally, Sanni sighed and faced Karru, asking, "So, do you want to stay here or return to the Aeroterra?"

Blinking, then blinking again, Karru paused, then looked between Sanni, Genesis, and Cloud for a minute before making her choice. She drew in a deep breath and said, "I'll stay here. If—if it's okay with Cloud, I'll go with him to help find survivors, then return to—Omega Rock with him." At the last, she turned to look at Cloud questioningly.

"Sure. Getting Riona free would have been a lot easier with extra help," Cloud agreed, looking up at Genesis questioningly.

"As you wish," Genesis agreed, then focused on Karru and said, "You'll have to take your instruction from Third Strife without complaint, though, because he has training in dealing with rescue missions, while you have none. Stay close to him and you should be fine."

"Thanks," she agreed quietly, slipping down off the fallen trunk without looking at Tarric's dangling body. Cloud gave Genesis a nod, then both wandered away, heading back to the shore. As they walked, they heard the discussion between the two adults continue.

"Do you really think it's okay to shove kids headlong into these sorts of disasters?" Sanni asked of the red haired man, sounding very annoyed.

"Whether it's okay or not is actually irrelevant. Kids don't learn anything if they're kept sheltered from reality. Do I _want_ to see them hurt or suffering? No, not really—but we don't have the kind of world which they'd be able to live in without experiencing some sort of hardship, and keeping them sheltered from reality leaves them ill-equipped to deal with reality when it can't be hidden from them anymore."

"...As much as that fact irks me, I can't fault your logic," Sanni replied with a sigh. "I'll find one of mine at your safe-zone to take back to the Aeroterra with me. With any luck, one of the more efficient ones will be there, and they'll be able to get a new jet pack while there to start ferrying people in my stead. We'll land some supplies with a smaller cargo shuttle, and I'll pass your request on to the other 'Terras."

"This way, then," Genesis agreed. "By the way, what's your name?"

At that point, they were too far away to hear, so Karru turned her head a bit to look at Cloud. He gave her a wryly amused look and said, "In some ways, it's really nice having adults who are just—done with all our childhood shit and make us face reality. Sometimes, though, that's not so good, because it also means we don't get to hide and pout anymore."

Karru gave him a faintly amused smile as she said, "I like how blunt most of them are. And I like it that—other than when I wanted to leave the shield while fiends were running around—they let me make my own choices. I couldn't really do that on the Aeroterra so I kinda...was a real brat and caused a lot of trouble for people."

"Yeah, I think we've all done that at some point," Cloud agreed.

Silence fell between them for a few minutes, and Cloud diverted to a cluster of rocks around a downed palm tree. It didn't take the two of them long to dig out a young man with black pants, a white shirt, and a red—over-shirt?—from under the tree, and Cloud quickly worked on snapping him out of his dazed state. The man looked maybe about seventeen or eighteen, and wasn't seriously injured—in fact, Cloud's healing magic was enough to fix his injuries—so when he was alert and aware again, he decided to help out with the search for survivors and headed away from the pair.

As they kept going in Cloud's chosen direction, Karru asked, "How did you know he was there?"

"Those of us designated as 'SOLDIERs'—that's an acronym, by the way—are experimental subjects infused with what we call 'Mako'. Those infusions mean we're enhanced in a lot of ways—sight, hearing, strength, reflexes, regenerative ability. When I focus on my senses, I can hear and see things ordinary people can't, and right now, I'm mainly focused on trying to 'hear' sounds of distress," Cloud explained. "So basically, I could hear his faint whimpers when an ordinary person couldn't."

"Oh." Silence fell for another minute before she asked, "You already knew without question that you wanted to become—a soldier, and why?"

"Um," the older boy began, frowning faintly. "I wanted to join SOLDIER because of the hype surrounding the General—I wanted to be a hero like him—but I hadn't thought that much about the rest of it until I was taking the test to join the Cadet program. Then, Eden showed up and attacked me from behind, asked me why I was 'going easy' on my sparring partner. When I said he's not my enemy, Eden put it right in my face by asking what I thought joining SOLDIER was if it wasn't going to mean hurting or killing people."

When he silenced, Karru blinked before prompting, "And what did you decide?"

"I don't _like_ hurting or killing people, but I like seeing innocent people hurt or killed even _less_ ," Cloud replied, and the girl's eyes widened. "I realized being strong or wanting to be like 'my hero' were just superficial reasons to do something. While I really respect the General and Commanders, I made my reason for taking this path my own—because _I_ wanted to be able to protect people...to give others the protection no one ever gave me until I met Eden and Commander Kagawa and the others here. What I am now is something I chose because of that. What's _your_ reason for joining the battle when you obviously don't have the training for it yet?"

"Training no one would give me, no matter how much I begged to learn so I could join the jet fighters," Karru scowled for a moment, then an image of Tarric stuck on that branch flashed in front of her eyes and her expression morphed into pain. "Except him—Tarric, the one who'd been stuck on..."

"Yeah. But _why_ did you want to join them?" Cloud asked again.

"...I thought it would be fun," she sighed. "Like I was living in a bubble and I wanted to prove myself doing something 'exiting'...But now...I'm sure I don't feel or think the same way, but I also don't know how I _should_ think or feel."

"A word of advice," Cloud offered, making her look up at him warily. "The choices you make _have_ to be _your own_. Don't let anyone else tell you how you should think or feel—get their input and advice, but make your own decision, regardless of what they say. You're the only one who knows yourself, and you'll never be able to learn what you most need to if you just follow along with what someone else has decided for you."

"...What I most need to?"

"The reasons why you want to do things, the reasons why you feel things—how you decide what's truly important to you."

The words shocked Karru, and the pair mostly fell silent for the rest of their search.


	45. 42-Spira and Gaia

**A/N:** Sorry if Wakka's speech patterns are off, but I'm not very familiar with Australian speech patterns/accents, and none of these people have any comparison for them to say he has one.

Spira and Gaia

Day had passed back into night, and it was now morning of the next day. Most things had settled, and with a fresh wave of pyreflies put out by Omega Rock, the island was restored to its full, proper growth, some of the trees which had survived the previous day's onslaught even producing some fruit. Most of the area affected by the tidal wave had been restored, and only the remains of debris and fallen trees in that area indicated the passage of the wave. As many people as they could save had been, which had been more than expected with the help of the free-roaming Summons.

Many SOLDIERs, 'jet fighters' from the airships, and students, several of the Guardians and Gaia's Refuge, and a few of the Motos and the Turks had died. The methods of death ranged from monster attacks to friendly fire in the mess to the effects of the sonic boom and tidal wave, but it didn't change the losses. There were no particular notable names of any of the combat groups, except for Judet of the Turks, who had died while saving the students with her from an enhanced Tonberry. Also, many civilians had died either in the initial 'attack' on the airship called the Shadowterra or by drowning or injury after it had fallen. That had been the most heart-wrenching part of the rescues and the clean-up they'd had to deal with.

The latest arrival to the battle, the airship known as the Fahrenheit, had been the main support in stabilizing things afterwards, both by helping to keep the remaining five 'Terras in the air and giving many of the people from the Shadowterra residences on board. They had also provided many people to help in the search and rescue in the ocean, and had been the ones to send an airship the island which was designed as a floating market and had facilities to prepare foods, rather than just dropping food on people who had no way to prepare it. Otherwise, all of the airships had readily supplied some food for those on the island, and they had enough to feed everyone for a few days with what they were offered.

While many of the people from the airships had readily returned to them, some chose to stay on the island to get to know the 'odd group' there, including Karru, Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka. Karru wasn't the only civilian who had chosen to stay there, either—some others from the Shadowterra had stayed, largely because they remembered Genesis saving their lives. In addition, the people operating the market ship stayed on the island to keep everyone supplied with food. Everyone had been too tired the day and night before to really sit down and talk, and due to the losses, no one particularly had a good night's sleep, though at least most of them had been able to properly get cleaned up.

In the early morning hours, a small, fast airship had arrived, and brought with it another two new arrivals. When Angeal had found them performing some sort of dance in the middle of a gathering of those energy lights which weren't pyreflies, he'd been very, very confused, but as he hadn't felt threat from them, he'd allowed them to finish what they'd been doing. By waiting, he'd realized they were dissipating those bits of energy from the area, making it feel lighter and less depressing in the surroundings. Rather than say anything to them, he had just followed them as they did the same thing in several other locations around the island.

Both women, one around twenty years old and the other around sixteen or seventeen years old, had brown hair, the older's a medium shade and falling to the shoulder and the younger's a golden brown in a loose ponytail at the back of her neck. They also dressed similarly in something which was obviously a type of skirt and shirt rather similar in design to Wutain clothing. The skirt was full length, somewhat pleated, and largely covered in plant designs, while the top was a white wraparound tank top held in place by an obi sash like Wutains often used, and both had a beaded earring in their right ear which was about six inches long, the older with a blue one and the younger with a simpler red one (1).

For the older of the women, the skirt was dark purple with pink sea hibiscus flowers on it and the obi was yellow, though she didn't seem to have any decoration other than the staff she carried. The highly-decorated staff was mostly in blue with a gold and pink-edged top shaped somewhat like a bird, along with some green gems and tassels in gold and pink, and it practically emanated power. The younger wore a dark green skirt with branches of deep red leaves and pale pink blossoms—plum tree branches—a blue obi, and detached sleeves tied at her upper arms which were similar to the sleeves of a Wutain kimono. Her staff was a simple, red-brown wood topped by a golden ring which had several other, smaller rings attached to it. (2)

Finally, the older of the two had faced him, letting him clearly see her blue left eye and green right eye, asking, "Now that they've all been sent, where will we find the rest of your people, especially your leader? Or leaders?" She'd been completely calm as she spoke, the younger girl with her just staying silent to watch the exchange with brilliant blue eyes.

"They're back at our—sort-of camp, probably still sleeping," Angeal had replied. "This way." He'd led them back to the 'camp' by Omega Rock and motioned them to sit at the rough tables and benches Eden had made the night before from some of the fallen trees, sand, and stone. Most of the tables would fit between eight and ten comfortably, though some around the edges of the clearing were smaller and would seat three or four, and the older woman had chosen a larger table near the middle of the clearing. She clearly expected company sometime soon, though she hadn't stopped the sixteen-year-old from curiously exploring her surroundings.

It hadn't been too long after that when Tidus had joined them with a glad cry of, "Yuna, you're here!" as he'd hugged the older of the two women, and she had returned it. Of course, he had also greeted the younger with the words, "So Yuna let you help with the sending this time, Hana?"

"Of course," the younger girl had agreed with an amused smile.

Over an hour had passed since then, and most of the people at the camp were awake, gathered around the table where 'Yuna' sat, Tidus to one side of her, and Rikku and Wakka to the other. One of the seven airship Captains had also taken a seat, his place beside Tidus, though the other six Captains had formed a line, standing behind those five. As the Gaians had assessed the dynamic of that group, they'd had to think quickly to choose representative leaders, a group including Rufus, Reno, Sephiroth, and Felicia, with Rufus across from Yuna with Reno and Sephiroth to either side of him and Felicia between Sephiroth and Wakka.

As they were all settling themselves, another, very confused man was led to the table by an amused-looking Kunzel and Aeris, a man the people of Gaia knew as Reeve Tuesti. Rufus rose again to ask the man in surprise, "What are you doing out here, Reeve? I thought you counted as a civilian, or you'd have been with us during the attack."

"I seem to qualify as a non-combatant, but not a civilian," Reeve said in something like bemusement, scanning the table and noting the rather large number of blonds to the strangers' side of it. "In the meantime, I apparently qualify as a leader here, so Minerva thought it best if I join you. I swear that was the strangest sensation in the world, though."

The others looked faintly amused, then everyone shuffled over to leave a space between Rufus and Sephiroth as the blond said, "Come sit here, then." With the head of Urban Development joining them, the table sat ten with many others arrayed behind them, both ones in leadership roles and ones not.

Hana was beside Karru, who had attached herself to her 'cousin's' arm and pulled her over to Genesis where he stood behind Reno and Rufus. Verdot stood directly behind Reno while Shears stood behind Felicia, and Angeal and Sora both stood behind Sephiroth. Godo stood next to Sora, and behind Reeve and Rufus were Thaldras and Veta. Behind them were other familiar faces, including Kunzel, Aeris, Kariya, Cloud, Zack, and others.

As Reeve sat, he asked tentatively, "Why is Veld here, and where's Tseng?"

"It's Verdot now, and I'm helping Reno fill in for Tseng while he recovers from energy exhaustion," Verdot replied.

"I see," the other man answered, gaze worried. He then gave a small nod and asked, "So, there was apparently a battle?"

It didn't take long for the Gaians to fill him in on the basic events they'd been dealing with since waking in unknown territory, even as he scanned the faces of the others at the table and in the crowd surrounding it. While the people on the Gaian side of the table were highly varied in looks (especially when factoring in Veta, who was clearly not even humanoid), the other side of the table had seven blonds, nearly all of whom also had the same kind of green eyes, three who were almost golden-blond, two with brown, and one with red. The only thing he could say for certain was that the foreigners' green eyes weren't the same green as the Cetra, and their eyes seemed to have another quirk he couldn't quite see at that distance.

Once Reeve had been brought up-to-date, he asked, "So, I guess it would be best to start with introductions?"

"Most likely," Rufus agreed, then looked across at the 'other half' of the table. "I am Rufus Shinra, and these others with me are—" He proceeded to name them all, including the 'leaders' standing behind him, before finally asking, "And you are?"

It was the brown haired twenty-year-old woman who answered, saying, "I am Yuna," then introducing the others with her. Tidus, who had blond hair and blue eyes (to differentiate him from the green-eyed ones), Wakka, Rikku, Hana, and Karru were actually the major ones of note in the introductions, but the ship Captains were largely blond haired and green-eyed. The result was that only Sanni of the Aeroterra, Riven of the Flareterra, and Lentin of the Farterra were people of note, the latter two for having hair which wasn't uniform blond and the first for being Karru's Aunt.

A pause fell in the discussion before Reeve asked bluntly, "Can I hazard a guess and say blond hair with your—distinctive green eyes is a racial trait, and that the race in question is strongly technologically-inclined, hence their almost unanimous Captaincy?"

"Not 'almost', _complete_ ," Yuna replied in faint amusement as Rikku chuckled and the Captains smiled. "Riven and Lentin are half-Al Bhed, and the others are fully Al Bhed. They created the airships for the comfort of their own people, but when the Sundering was reaching its peak five years ago, they opened the doors of the 'Terras to everyone else. The Fahrenheit is, and has been for thousands of years, their mobile homeland when they leave the island of Bikanel. I, also, am half-Al Bhed, and Hana, being a descendant of mine, still has some Al Bhed blood in her. Only Tidus and Wakka aren't Al Bhed in this group. May we ask about your apparent races as well—those ones with the exotic features and dark hair, the ones with brown hair and green eyes, and the...large cats?"

Several brows rose at her phrase of Hana being a 'descendant of hers', but Rufus eyed Thaldras for a moment before the older man gave a nod. Once he had agreement, he looked back at Yuna, clearly their designated spokesperson, and said, "The first group you noted are called by us 'Wutains', who may have dark brown or black hair and notably have the facial features and skin tone you can see. The ones with brown hair and green eyes are a race known as the Cetra, who have the ability to speak with the sentience of the planet (3). We knew that sentience as Minerva, though this world apparently also has one whose name we don't yet know. The 'large cats' are the Moto Tribe, and are skilled in combat while being every bit as intelligent as any human. What other races would we encounter here?"

After a momentary pause, Yuna gave a small nod and explained, "A few of the races have—since died off, but the ones still around besides humans and the Al Bhed are the Ronso, the Guado, the Hypello, and the Peruperu. Unless the Sundering stops soon, the Hypello will also become extinct, as they live near and in rivers such as the Moonflow, which have nearly entirely dried up in the last five or six years. I think their most similar comparison would be—frog-like? They're very sweet, though. The Peruperu are essentially small humans, maybe three to four feet tall. Both the Guado and the Ronso are still fairly prominent in the world scheme, but of the Guado, only those who took shelter on the Farterra are left. They're essentially humanoid with plant-like hands and turquoise and aquamarine hair. Ronso are bipedal lions with white hair and blue fur, one of the largest and physically strongest races on Spira."

"What do the names of the airships mean?" Reeve suddenly asked with a faint, puzzled frown. When the others blinked and stared at him like he was an idiot, he rephrased to say, "I suppose ones like the Aeroterra and Flareterra refer to elemental magics, but—what's the Farterra in particular? What does it reference?"

Several people traded looks, but it was Tidus who said, "It references the Farplane, and the gate to the Farplane has been moved onto it. The Guado used to be the sole guardians of that gate, but now there are others, since everyone on the Farterra treats it like some sort of national treasure."

"Isn't it, Tidus?" Rikku smirked at him.

"And what's the Farplane?" Verdot suddenly asked, making the ones from _Spira_ look at him in surprise.

"...I thought everyone on Spira knew..." Hana blinked suddenly.

Several others traded looks before Felicia looked at Wakka and Rikku. "Is that the impression you got from me after seeing my other forms?" They traded looks, then met her gaze in questioning confusion. "I don't think we have the luxury of trying to be discreet, so I'm going to be blunt. We aren't from this world, we're from a planet once called Gaia, which was destroyed not long ago by a greedy, power-hungry moron. By what we've been able to assess of the situation here, if we hadn't arrived just when we did, Spira would have just been destroyed, too. So, because we _aren't_ from Spira, you're going to have to tell us about things you take for granted, like the Farplane."

More looks were traded, then Wakka sighed and said, "You've gotta point. I've never seen anything like Chaos, or like your Zirconaide form, before, and I've been around quite a long time. But there's a lot more you'll need to know about the world to understand the Farplane, and some things, we might have to show you because telling won't be enough."

"Try telling us, first. You may be surprised what we can grasp," Genesis said, his gaze intense.

"In that case," Yuna began. "You need to realize this world essentially lives with one foot in the spirit world at all times, and the Farplane is that spirit world. There are many people you see around you who were either beckoned back from death, who had some reason for not passing on in the first place, or who simply couldn't accept their deaths. Fiends are the souls of those who died and couldn't move on, so began to hate the living, allowing the pyreflies—the energy Hana and I were dissipating earlier—" She met Angeal's gaze as she said the last, and he nodded with a surprised blink. "—to form them into those beings called fiends.

"The beckoned are people who died and whose loved ones called them back, and who are able to stay as long as they don't realize they're beckoned—but if no one sends them on, they can just as easily become fiends as well. Transition into them, that is. On very rare occasions, the beckoned can also transition into unsent. The unsent are people who know they've died, but who kept living because something, some personal belief or something left undone, kept them here. Most unsent have very strong wills, and the longer they stay without going insane or becoming fiends, the stronger their will. Prior to myself, Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka, the longest-lived unsent lived for a thousand years."

Yuna stopped as Genesis cut in to ask, "Did you just call yourself a ghost—the lingering spirit of someone who died?"

With a wry smile, Yuna agreed, "I did."

Blinking, Genesis called into the crowd, "Can you think of any way that's possible, and for them to have physical bodies, Eden?"

The blond Turk appeared out of the crowd to stand roughly behind and between Rufus and Reeve, saying, "You're asking that knowing everything on Gaia was made of nothing but energy from the Lifestream? Gaia itself fit the qualifications of an 'unsent' or a 'beckoned'. The same logic should apply, which means direct interference from this world's sentience."

Everyone stared at the annoyed golden-blond, then looked back at Genesis as he chuckled. "That was what I thought. Which would also mean the Farplane is their version of stepping into Minerva's core, only their sentience didn't make his core hard to get to or find, he gave them direct access to it. That seems dangerous to me after what Minerva said about her own core."

"He might have other defenses, ones easier to enact and manipulate when people are standing in a zone of pure energy. This world doesn't have the same composition as Gaia—it's not composed of energy, it just has a lot of it floating around. I'd probably need a map and some size estimates to work out anything more detailed, but I'd hazard a guess and say this world is bigger, so its building blocks are the same scientific, periodic table of elements building blocks as the star-travelers would have been made of to make them unable to survive on Gaia without getting severe Mako poisoning."

"Why do its scientific building blocks matter to an essentially esoteric discussion?" Rufus asked in annoyance.

"It matters because it's establishing basic premises of this world," Genesis replied in amusement. "Our world made it impossible to separate out 'physical' forms and 'spirit' forms—this world makes it possible to separate them, but the entity deciding its basic rules seems to have made the two interact with one another, even transition between one and the other, both ways, not just one." He then looked at Yuna, who was blinking at him and Eden in something like amazement, and asked, "So, how long have the four of you been alive?"

"About thirty-five hundred years," the woman replied evenly.

Genesis raised a brow and asked, "So why did you stay? Especially for so long?"

Her shoulders lifted in a shrug. "We each had different reasons. Well, Tidus and I both wanted to be around to stop powerful fiends like Sin, like the one which had been out in the ocean. Unfortunately, its timing was bad and we weren't able to get to it before it did harm, but this isn't the first time such a fiend has appeared, and likely won't be the last. In my case, I also wanted to be able to teach others my skills—too few were learning them, but having people able to send spirits on before they become fiends isn't actually optional. Rikku, Wakka?"

Rikku pouted and said, "I was never able to figure out what I actually wanted to do with my life, and never did. I still haven't. Apparently, that...regret is enough to keep me here indefinitely." Several brows across both sides of the table rose at the words.

Wakka told her, "You'll figure out the real reason eventually." She stuck her tongue out at him, and he faced Genesis to say, "I—watched my wife and son die in an attack that never shoulda happened. I died soon after, but...To end those stupid wars, to force people to find other ways to work things out—that's why I stayed. So fewer people, fewer families, would have to go through what I did that day. And until people stop starting wars, I'm gonna be sticking around here."

More than one Spiran flinched at the words, but the Gaians traded thoughtful looks as they realized what the majority of the reasons seemed to be. Tidus threw in then, "We'd had a companion named Auron way back, before we died. He'd been unsent for awhile already, and his reason was that he'd made a promise to my father to take care of me. He stayed until I—sort of dissolved when Sin was defeated. Everyone from my home, and my home itself, had all qualified as beckoned. Yuna ended up beckoning me back, and if I actually wanted to stay, that meant becoming unsent. To become unsent, I needed a reason which wasn't her will. My reason to stop Sin and other fiends like it was only one of them, but the others are private and will stay that way.

"The funny thing about the beckoned is that they may as well be human—can even have kids and stuff—if they're beckoned strongly enough, but unsent can't. And unsent will either stay the age they were when they died, or they'll shift to whatever age they were most comfortable at. Wakka was thirty-two when he died, and the event causing it was so traumatizing he couldn't imagine himself any other way. That's the normal course of events. Rikku, Yuna, and I all lived and aged well past the ages we look now, but when we became unsent, we realized these were—the skins we'd felt most comfortable in. Hence why Yuna and I look like we're twenty and Rikku looks twenty-five. I think that was the closest she ever came to figuring herself out."

Rikku stuck her tongue out at him, too, saying, "You don't really have the right to talk when it took you three decades to realize Yuna had beckoned you back."

"Something she deliberately withheld from me," Tidus answered, actually chuckling as Yuna flushed faintly. "Even at the time when she thought she'd fallen in love with someone else."

"Moving on, it seems like we have different definitions for the word pyreflies," Angeal suddenly cut in, his gaze thoughtful.

"We do?" several of the Spirans asked.

It was Sephiroth who commented, "Our pyreflies refer directly to the energy our physical bodies transition into upon our deaths, which are often temporary and return to the flows of energy cycling the world in what we call the Lifestream. Or, they refer directly to floating spirit energy before it dissipates back into the Lifestream, regardless of its origin. That energy is, at best, nutrients for the remaining physical world, and at worst, it is a non-entity which does no harm by floating about an area until it dissipates. If those formless energy lights we've been seeing are your pyreflies, they are simply floating energy which has an unfortunate tendency to react negatively to spiritual energy and distress. Our pyreflies are tied directly to _life_ , while yours are tied directly to _suffering_ , if you will."

"The white-green energy lights which caused plant growth are what you call pyreflies, you mean?" Captain Sanni asked suddenly, her gaze intense and curious.

"Yes," Angeal agreed. "It's why this island exists right now, it's why there are trees growing here, why new trees have sprung up literally overnight in the flood zone. And our pyreflies have a direct tie to Minerva, especially when she's using her will to bring life to a place without it."

"That would mean there are honestly two planetary sentiences here now," Yuna commented thoughtfully.

"There are," Genesis agreed, gaze faintly amused.

"Hey, I have a question!" Karru suddenly cut in, a deep frown on her face as she apparently thought of something. When everyone looked at her, some with disgust for interrupting the discussion, others in surprise or curiosity, she asked, "So, if you guys are from a different planet, why are we talking the same language? It would just be—strange—if the people on both worlds had the same language, wouldn't it?"

Everyone gaped at her in shock as Genesis and Eden both snorted and chuckled.

 **Notes:**

(1) There are some people who probably don't realize this earring (the blue one) isn't actually unique to Yuna (and I don't mean Lenne). The other noted person to have one appeared in FFX-3/ -Will-, and was a young man who was a 'sender', rather than a Summoner. We don't know Lenne's status in that regard, which is why I'm not counting her. It's assumed, then, that Summoners wear the blue earring, and I'm playing with that to have an apprentice's version as well as a Summoner's version, though there's no evidence an apprentice's version existed in Yuna's time during FFX/X-2. As such, the apprentice's version is new—in the last 800 years since Summoning was revived.

(2) Think of a Buddhist Monk's staff the way they're often shown in movies and animes!

(3) This lack of capitalization is deliberate, in case anyone was wondering.


	46. 43-To Current Times

**A/N:** I've kept the history lesson as short as I could without making it no longer understandable, and I don't think anyone will want more than has been provided, anyway. For the parts in various FFX story continuations, if something's really blatantly been said incorrectly (not just because I shortened it exponentially, so a lot of details aren't there), please let me know. It won't be made longer, but re-wording of what's there is possible.

To Current Times

"It's about time someone thought to ask that," Eden commented from where he stood, eyes on Genesis in amusement.

"It is," the red haired man agreed, equally amused. He then thought to seek out Thaldras' gaze, and his lips quirked in faint amusement as well.

It was the Cetra man who said, "Now that things have calmed here in the immediate future, Minerva and this world's entity have had time to discuss more mundane things. We Cetra have been given to understand that the 'star-travelers' who arrived on our world two thousand years before its destruction actually originated from _this_ world. As such, our 'Standard' and their most common language likely have similarities. However, languages have a distinct habit of evolving over time, as old words go out of use and new ones are created, and the other language influences both have had would have influenced two very different languages by this point."

While everyone had been staring at him for his words, they were effectively put off-balance from shock as Genesis said, "And _this_ is where your planet's sentience and ours differ, because _ours_ doesn't seem to have any issue simply granting her people the knowledge of whatever language is most common in the area we arrive in. That is, whatever is your most common language, Minerva got your world's sentience to give it to her so she could, in turn, give it to us, hence why we're speaking the same language right now. Of course, we still have to manually learn archaic language and uncommonly used words, but everything we need to communicate effectively has been given to us."

"How could you know a thing like that? Seems far-fetched, ya?" Wakka glared at the younger red haired man.

"We know because she's done that very thing before," Genesis replied with a smirk. "Makes a habit of it, even." Many people present, on both sides, gaped at him in surprise as the Turks all smirked and the SOLDIER commanders looked amused.

"A habit of randomly giving people the knowledge of whole languages?" Yuna asked in confusion.

Seeing their confusion, Genesis shrugged and informed them, "We'll _start_ with the fact that the original language of the Cetra was known as 'Eidolish', the language of our Summoned spirits, or Eidolons. Both the Eidolons and the Cetra simply _had_ that language imprinted in their minds, and only needed to learn the less-used parts of it. This we know from some of our Summons having bluntly _told_ us that's how they learn Eidolish. Then, we can add in the fact that you _aren't_ the first non-Gaians we've met recently, and that other person was also granted the knowledge of Standard so he could get along in our world. If she can do it for the Eidolons, the Cetra, and one ordinary human, she can obviously do it for anyone she chooses to."

While most of the Spirans were clearly reeling from the shock, Hana suddenly asked, "So what was that you said about people on your world having originated here?"

A stunned silence fell before Tidus snapped his fingers and exclaimed happily, "The Space Exodus! It wasn't a failure after all, it just took a lot longer than everyone had thought it would to get to another planet!"

Several Gaians traded confused looks, then Reeve asked Tidus, "What do you mean, 'Space Exodus'?"

"Okay, we've been around for about thirty-five hundred years, right?" Tidus asked, and got nods back. "So, about five hundred years after we had our battle with Sin, and after we technically died, everyone had reached a point in technology where they wanted to explore space, and we were also so overpopulated by then that everyone thought it was a good idea to reduce numbers. The 'Terras are actually advanced versions of the spaceships' blueprints, and would be able to stay intact in space. But originally, the ships built had been intended to go to distant planets both for exploration and materials."

"Of course, it was really only humans, Al Bhed, and sometimes Peruperu, who were on any of those ships," Rikku threw in.

"Yeah," Tidus agreed. "About a hundred different vessels of about five hundred people each were sent in groups of five heading for the same destination. They'd been put in stasis because we were expecting the trips to take over a decade, so there was no sense in having them waste ten years of life, you know? When we lost contact with the ships' mainframes a few decades later, we gave it up as a failure and stuck to this planet and our neighbors."

"...Did you truly not realize the vastness of space?" Reeve asked with a constipated look.

"Apparently not," Tidus agreed with a wry grin. "We wanted something close at hand, and the ones going to other planets in the solar system were successful, brought back the materials we needed and all, but...How far the others ended up going was more than we ever anticipated. I mean, you guys are kinda the proof of that. How long did you travel for to get here?"

Most of the Gaians traded looks, then focused on Thaldras, who said, "Planetary entities have a different perception of 'time' than we do, and the rest of us were in stasis during that time. Perhaps the free-roaming Eidolons would have a better idea?"

Eden commented dryly, "According to Hikari, we were traveling for about five hundred years, so we can probably assume it also took about five hundred years for them to reach Gaia. For our purposes, that makes three thousand years—a thousand for the round trip and two thousand on Gaia."

Everyone turned to stare at him in something like pure confusion, and Genesis asked, "When did you find that out?"

The blond's lips quirked in amusement as he replied, "I went to check on Tseng when I woke up this morning, and sat and talked with her for awhile. She's—interesting, to say the least."

"Could you explain a bit more about your—Summons to me?" Yuna asked suddenly. "We have beings called Aeons, which are formed from fayth, which in turn are the souls of humans—or other sentient races—who willingly sacrificed themselves either to provide an energy supply or to provide the form of an Aeon. The practice of creating Aeons went out of use once Sin was defeated, and stayed that way for a very long time. About eight hundred years ago, old magic was being revived, and I was asked to teach the skill again, being the last practitioner who knew it. As far as I can tell, they're similar to your Summons in some ways while differing greatly from them in others, but I'm not clear on what makes them so different."

A long silence followed before Sephiroth said, "Our Summons are semi-physical and semi-spirit-form entities who may appear in two forms. The first, and the one we are more familiar with, is that their essence is bound to a Materia shard which allows its holder to call it forth for assistance or to discuss an issue or so on. The other, more rare form we see them in is known as 'free-roaming'. Hikari is a free-roaming Alexander type who gave herself a human form and apparently reproduced with a human to create children, only one of whom is still alive. Perhaps I should say instead that we may meet more free-roaming ones than we are aware of, as in their human forms, distinguishing them from humans is nearly impossible unless one knows what features mark them as a Summon."

Yuna smiled at the words and said, "Your world certainly has its own share of quirks in that case." She gave him a nod and added, "Thank you for explaining. It would certainly account for where all of them disappeared to after the disaster was dealt with." She motioned her hand around at all the people gathered there and added, "We certainly wouldn't know if they had taken human form and joined us here."

"I think some of the people here would know them even without knowing the signs," Reeve said in amusement. "But yes, the majority of us wouldn't be able to tell them apart from any other human. Now that we have _that_ out of the way, I believe a bit of a history lesson is in order. You've mentioned 'Sin', the Space Exodus, and a return to Summoning eight hundred years ago. What else can you tell us about the situation?"

The four unsent traded looks, then unanimously sighed softly. It was Tidus who started by saying, "Forty-five hundred years ago, there was a war between two powerful and skilled nations, the city-states of Zanarkand and Bevelle. Both had been based on machina, so it was called the Machina War, and Zanarkand had also known magic. The war was bad, but Bevelle won it in the end, only for the last Summoner of Zanarkand to beckon so strongly that he created the place where I grew up, Dream Zanarkand. To be able to keep that beckoning going indefinitely, he pulled as many pyreflies to him as possible as a shield, but that shield was too powerful and he lost control of it—it became a super-fiend called Sin. Sin, as per his instructions, kept destroying machina and advancement in the world as part of its way of 'protecting' Dream Zanarkand."

"That led to a shunning of machina and the Al Bhed who worked with them, and it was how Summoning began, as well," Yuna picked up the story. "His daughter, Yunalesca, became a Summoner as well and was the first to create the Final Aeon, which would cause a 'Calm' for a time after one of Sin's attacks. We had thought it was because Sin was being defeated, but the reality had turned out to be much worse. I told you Aeons are created by a person who willingly becomes a spirit fayth, and the fayth then becomes the Aeon, yes?"

"You did," Reeve agreed. "What did that mean for the Final Aeon and Sin?"

"In the creation of Dream Zanarkand and Sin, everyone who had survived the attack on Zanarkand became fayth. Those fayth never went as far as becoming Aeons, but their energy was helping to support Sin. Between Sin's loss of sanity and the energy of the fayth, when the 'Final Aeon' supposedly defeated Sin, it was instead absorbed by Sin to become the next soul holding Sin's form. We gained a Calm due to the time it took Sin to assimilate its new supporting soul. I spared Tidus that fate by choosing to enter Sin and defeat that core, but..." Yuna explained, then drifted off.

"My father hadn't been so lucky, and the Sin we finally defeated had been him," Tidus finished. Many eyes widened in surprise and horror. "The Final Aeon had no choice in the matter. The realization of that dynamic was part of the reason Summoning went out of practice, also because not all those who voluntarily became fayth and Aeons knew exactly what kind of person they were giving their power to. Once bound, they had no way to break free again, other than by their previous Summoner being defeated and the one who defeated them would then gain control of the fayth or Aeon. Or they could be handed off, in the right circumstances."

"That began the Eternal Calm, which wasn't so 'Eternal' in the end," Wakka then put in. "We had too many factions, those who still followed the original teachings of Yevon, ones who had a milder form of them, ones who went to the machina side like the Al Bhed. People who wanted to either choose a new path or stick to the old one. They had three leaders (1) who wanted to get along, and things went well for a few years, the fighting mostly stopped..." He paused for a moment, then sighed, "But that only lasted for five years, and that was _around_ some moron beckoning Sin back. Then, someone assassinated the three faction leaders who were getting along, and we went right back to war. My wife and son were murdered in that war three years later."

"And Wakka became unsent, threw a fit, and started killing everyone on all sides who wanted to solve things by fighting," Rikku put in. "Of course, the war ended less than a month later because there was no one left to fight it. People figured it was better to keep to themselves than fight over world domination. And some stupid people kept beckoning Sin back, mostly the Yevonites, because without Sin, their whole belief system and premise for existing just wasn't there, and they didn't know how to figure out another way to live. Or just didn't want to bother trying. It took about a hundred and fifty years from the start of the Eternal Calm for the Machine Revolution to finally happen and people to move technology forward freely. Another three hundred and fifty-ish years took us to the Space Exodus."

"Which you already went into quite a bit of detail about," Reeve agreed. "So what would have been the next point of interest?"

"The Revitalization, about two hundred years after the Space Exodus," Yuna answered. "The goods brought back from nearby planets helped a great deal in a desire to expand our growth, but there were major drawbacks to that, namely a lack of Summoners, or 'senders' as they'd been called since the start of the Eternal Calm, which meant a corresponding increase in the number of fiends. The lands were greatly damaged by them, and we needed to repair that damage, starting by making it a top priority to fight the fiends—the only option without senders. Of course, senders helped where they could, including my descendants and myself, but that was too little and we had to focus our attention on certain places—Bevelle, Besaid, Luca, Mt. Gagazet, and Guadosalam, where the gate to the Farplane had been."

"They did well, of course," Wakka cut in. "Nine hundred years after that—after many petty wars—was basically the war to end all wars, the Steam War. Our world is—about eighty or eighty-five percent water, and airships are commonplace. With the technology available at the time, everyone thought it would be great to fight over the ocean with weapons of mass destruction as they tried to shoot down one another's airships. I'm still not really sure what they were fighting about, but—the poison, the steam, the quakes they caused, those did a lotta damage. The most obvious sign was the thick blanket of fog covering the planet—I'd never seen so much mold and rot before in my life as what I saw after ten years of permanent fog. It got bloody cold, too, and the mutations people got—that was just bad."

"But they _did_ clean it up after," Yuna pointed out.

"They shouldn't have done it in the _first_ place," he scowled in reply.

Yuna looked at Reeve and said, "That pretty much was the worst 'war' we've ever had, and Wakka wasn't able to get it to stop because—what was he going to do, single-handedly destroy all their airships in one fell swoop? He would have if he could have, but that would have been impossible. Then people realized how much damage they'd done to the world and the Restoration began to undo the damage. It was a long process to get the world to dry out and neutralize the poisons. A lot of people died from mutations and diseases we'd never seen before, so the two major fields of advancement over the next two hundred years or so were mainly in environmental and medical technology."

"And after the two hundred years of the Restoration, there was about nine hundred years before the Summon Revival!" Rikku practically chirped. "Summoning was brought back—that was the eight-hundred-year-ago mark—and people began developing magi-machina tech, like those guns we use now. We had two real morons in charge of New Zanarkand (2) and Bevelle, and the two started fighting a lot like it was way back during the Machina War. The Bevelle guy's advisor decided to literally re-create 'Sin', and he succeeded. That wasn't a beckoning, he literally re-created the process the original Sin was formed by, so we had a new creature, similar in size and ability, different look, and just as volatile, called Null. The fiends in that era had also gotten resistant to lasers and regular weapons, so the magi-machina tech turned out to be the best way to handle them. Made me glad I'd stayed around."

"And finally, we come to the Sundering, which began a few decades ago, but took a turn for the worst about five years ago," Yuna finished. "The skies roiled with black clouds, fiends sky-rocketed in numbers, random natural disasters began happening in places they'd never happened before. We mentioned the Moonflow drying up, but there were other places where acidic water surged from underground and wiped out whole communities, sudden floods, volcanic eruptions out in stable, flat lands. In the Thunder Plains, the roiling clouds and patches of scorched land wouldn't have been strange, but as things stand, there are very few strongholds left on land and most who have survived did so by taking shelter on airships like the 'Terras."

"Yesterday, when the meteor came down and the fiends swarmed here, was the first day in five years where the skies calmed and cleared. With that, the land and ocean calmed, too," Tidus added. "But it didn't change the destabilization of the Farplane or how it started bleeding over into the physical world. Rikku and Wakka were on the Farterra to make sure anything forming on board wasn't going to be destructive. While we'd already developed the jet fighter technology back with the magi-machina tech, we hadn't made it properly functional until the Sundering, when the jet fighters ended up being the only things keeping the fiends from downing our airships."

"I see," Reeve agreed. "That's a lot to take in. Your history has certainly been eventful. Today, how many cities are left on Spira?"

"The Zan-Bev Fort is one of them, in the location formerly known as Bevelle," Yuna offered. "It's the only city which was highly defensible prior to the Sundering, and has stayed that way, especially with some of New Zanarkand's technology incorporated into its defenses. The people from both cities now live there. The Ronsos are defending Mt. Gagazet. We helped them with some defenses because they refused to leave. Luca was also more defensible, so we were able to supplement them and keep people in their homes there. Those are the only three cities left. Otherwise, Macalania Lake is one of the few remaining fresh water sources, so we have a small contingent guarding it. Even Bikanel has been deserted in favor of living on the Fahrenheit."

Several Gaians traded looks as Reeve sat back, but it was Rufus who said, "That should mean there are unused lands we'll be able to take and make use of. In the meantime, knowing what we do about our world and yours, there's no telling how the two planetary entities will take to one another. All we know currently is that ours appears as a grown woman while yours seems more akin to a child, and there are likely things which will change on this world due to Minerva's influence. The ability for fiends to sustain themselves, for example. Thaldras, have you gotten any further word on what changes we may see?"

"It will not be simple," Thaldras replied evenly. "There are many aspects Minerva applies by nature to the world around her, and she cannot cause those things to simply not happen. At this moment, growth is one of them, and there is the possibility of things so world-changing as new land rising out of the ocean. That, in turn, would flood low-lying cities and lands through simple displacement. To date, the shifts have been minimal, but this is only the second day since our arrival here. Regardless, our civilians should be joining us soon, and there is no way this one island could hold them all."

"It sounds like you're assuming Minerva's will is going to take precedence over our planet's sentience," Yuna commented.

"No, just that she's going to keep doing what she can to help us," Reeve replied.

It was Angeal who suddenly asked, "So, since Minerva, and even Jenova, have names, does _he_? I mean, the sentience of this world?"

Thaldras gave his head a shake and told the other man, "Jeh-nova, or Jenova, is a _title we_ gave her, which translates to 'the Calamity from the Skies', which is _not_ a _name_. We do not know her _name_ , and even 'Minerva' is a title, that of Min Erva, or Mother Earth. Minerva and Jenova are your modifications to the titles by which Eidolish names them. Whether the male will give us his name, or title, depends on him, unless others here know it."

"We didn't actually know we had such a sentience, so I don't think anyone here knows his name or title," Yuna answered.

After a silence, Thaldras sighed. "Then, we wait until he gives it. With he and Minerva speaking intently of what to do next, a discussion we are unfortunately not privy to, we are only able to work with what we have in front of us. It is highly likely the majority of the Cetra and the Motos could remain here to guard the Omega, but the others would need to find other residences."

"What do you mean when you say 'Omega'?" Tidus suddenly asked. "We're talking about a very powerful machina left behind by the Machina War which created Sin—and the temple where it was left hidden—when we say Omega. The Omega Ruins are almost across the planet from here."

Several brows rose before Felicia said, "Omega is the form a planetary sentience takes as it prepares to leave a dying planet. The Omega body stores the genetic data it developed and incorporated over its time on that world, and the sentience houses itself in it when it's about to leave with all of the energy of the world it was able to recover. This—Omega Rock—is the head and shoulders of the Omega we came here on, which means it's composed primarily of biological matter, not geological matter. I don't think Minerva plans on going anywhere else for awhile now."

Many of the Spirans' eyes widened at the explanation of the Gaians' Omega.

"Well, this is a great deal to think about, so maybe we should take a break, get some food, explore—generally get to know one another. There's still a lot we don't know about you, or you about us, so it'll take awhile to cover everything, and we'll only start arguments if we try to rush everything," Yuna offered, then stood up. "And I know most of us haven't eaten yet, so the market ship crew is probably wondering where everyone is." She smiled at everyone and turned to head for the named ship.

After a pause, everyone else laughed and relaxed, then rose to follow her—food sounded really good right then.

 **Notes:**

(1) No, these three leaders who were assassinated aren't Baralei, Gippal, and Nooj. They supposedly disbanded their factions, but I don't believe for a moment that no one else would have stepped up to lead very similar factions, possibly under the same, a very similar, or even a very different name. People have this strange thing about having leaders to look to, you know? So, the leaders who were assassinated were the ones who took over for those three guys.

(2) This is the name given to the rebuilt Zanarkand, in the same place the original one had been built. It was largely populated by humans eager to advance technology and by Al Bhed and half-Al Bhed.


	47. 44-Friendly Discussions

Friendly Discussions

Eden and Genesis were sitting together at a small table, joined by Karru and Hana, to eat and discuss—Felicia. Genesis' opening question was, "So what in Titan's name happened to Felicia, by the way?"

Making a face, Eden replied, "After Fuhito snatched me, he made it very clear he was going to sacrifice her life right then, with or without my help. He spent...probably half an hour or longer with some sort of energy spear in my leg, tearing and burning it to try to force me to make it easier for him. In the process, I got an idea, sort of a long shot, but way better for Felicia and Zirconaide and the world than what Fuhito was going to do. I gave him half of an array system which would pass a novice's inspection and got him to help me merge Felicia and Zirconaide rather than separating them, like we'd been trying to do up to that point."

"You— _merged_ them?" Genesis gaped, dropping his fork.

"Yeah," Eden replied, gaze distant and sad. "There were elements of the creation of what we call chimeras in it, the merging of two basic forms which don't go together. It was a variant of the same thing Fuhito was doing to create the Ravens, but for Felicia, it required two people to do, at least. I needed to control the active part to merge them properly, so I ended up giving him the anchor, and the result seems to have turned out well—both Felicia and Zirconaide seem to be doing all right and not fighting with one another. There's no Materia for Zirconaide now because they merged into her body."

"And she's stabilized—she won't die?" Genesis asked. At Eden's agreement, the red haired man asked, "Can I see the arrays you used?"

"We don't have paper or someplace suitable to draw them out. When I do, I'll definitely show you," the blond Turk agreed.

"You've got wood, so you've got paper and charcoal handy," Genesis shot back, sounding amused.

With a smirk, Eden replied, "Then go ahead and try your hand at making some of them for me."

Genesis blinked as Karru asked, "Making them? With what machines?"

Neither of the men answered her, even as Genesis eyed the younger blond for a minute before extending his hand to Eden and saying, "Pen." Grinning, the younger of the two pulled a pen from his pocket and handed it to the older, red haired man, who took it and began drawing on the tabletop.

"What are you doing to the table?" Karru asked in curious amazement.

As he drew, the red haired man was calculating and mouthing out things he needed to account for to transmute wood, so Eden looked at the girl and said, "He's laying out a template to create paper by using water and earth elements, as well as instructions on how to manipulate those elements. Technically, on wood, there will need to be some elements of plant transmutation, but he doesn't need to add those yet. What's paper made of?"

"Sawdust," Karru replied, still looking confused.

It was Hana, who had been rather quiet for most of the time she'd been there, who said, "Wood. Sawdust is just wood shavings, and paper is sawdust which has been bleached and beaten to a pulp in water, then strained and laid flat in a press until it dries. Theoretically, it's not very difficult to do and uses only simplistic machines. How does that relate to these lines Genesis is drawing on the table-top?"

"The lines—the circle and star and other lines in the geometric aspect—are scientific and mathematical equations needed to direct the transmutation of the wood into paper. The language marks running alongside those are like computer codes, the same sorts of codes which let your jet gear function," Eden explained to her. "Between the two, as long as you've got the right kind of array and the materials of a similar type to what you're trying to make, you can easily turn something like wood into paper, turn sand into a wall or spear, or turn water into wine."

"Where does the water aspect of the array come in, then? The tabletop has no water on it," Hana pointed out dryly, even as Karru stared at her in amazement.

"Do you know what 'air' is composed of?" Eden asked in reply, not-quite-smirking at her. She blinked and shook her head, so he said, "Water is composed of two basic elements known as hydrogen and oxygen. Following so far?" When the sixteen-year-old nodded, he went on, "The 'air' is composed of many trace elements in gaseous form—nitrogen, sulfur, helium, hydrogen, oxygen, and more. The array influences a _sphere_ around itself, not a flat plain, meaning the transmutation takes trace elements it needs out of the air. Because we're on an island rather than being landlocked, there's a huge quantity of hydrogen and oxygen as water in this air—enough of it to fill the requirements to make paper."

Hana gazed thoughtfully down at the markings before commenting, "Karru told me you made the tables without using arrays like this. How?"

"I _did_ use arrays, but rather than drawing them out like Genesis is doing, I imprinted them on the energy cycling in my body. It's a skill you usually acquire by doing something really stupid, nearly getting yourself killed, and surviving to tell the tale. Is it worth what you lose for doing it? In my opinion—no."

Again, Hana was silent for a few moments, then she held a hand up and generated a ball of fire in it. "How can you have so much trouble imprinting your desires on your energy when those of us inclined to magic do it so easily here?" she asked curiously, her gaze meeting the blond's evenly.

The blond gazed at the ball of fire she held in her hand, then asked, "What is it you 'imprint' on the energy in your body to make that happen? What instructions do you use? If you 'look' at the instructions you're giving it, what do you see imprinting on that energy? How varied is it—can it create tables and chairs or just attack?"

It was the brown haired woman's turn to blink as she released the ball of fire in her hand, then gave him a confused look and closed her eyes. "Give me a moment..." she murmured, and shortly after, created another ball of fire in her hand. After a few more moments, she released the flame and opened her eyes as she looked down at the text on the array Genesis had nearly finished. "I had never thought about anything beyond my will allowing the spells to work," Hana said as she met Eden's gaze. "The language is different, but the lines—the equations—are the same, with differences I suspect come from it being fire rather than earth or wood."

Eden nodded. "I think that's a trait of Mages, to have an easier time of using the effects of the arrays without drawing one. In your case, though—your world's sentience gave you easier access than my world's did, and Genesis is actually only now learning the finer details I know. He's really good at it, though, and depending on how things go here, he might even gain the ability to use magic like you and I do. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and there are circumstances or places where even that doesn't work, usually if you have some sort of energy void."

"...You're saying I instinctively know those arrays because our world's sentience has deemed that I gain the use and access of some of those skills, so that knowledge was directly imprinted into me from birth?" Hana asked as she sat forward a bit to look at the array as a whole as soon as Genesis drew his hand back from it.

"It may not have been from birth, but yes," the blond agreed, also looking at the array for a moment as Genesis placed his fingers on the rim of the outer circle. "It'll do what it's supposed to, and the rest depends on how clearly you can imagine the result," Eden told the red haired man with a grin.

With a small nod, Genesis pushed his energy into the array, and about five sheets of somewhat rough, unbleached paper peeled off the tabletop. "No bleach—there's not enough chlorine or ammonia in the air," the red haired man said. "At least, not in the range of the array. It's rougher than I was thinking—maybe not quite enough water in the range to smooth it properly. So, it's more like thin parchment, but it should be functional. Now the charcoal...Unless you just want to draw with your pen?" the red haired man asked the blond impishly.

"The agreement was paper and charcoal," Eden smirked in reply.

Genesis made a face and blinked at the tabletop, where only a few edges of the rim of the circle were still showing. After assessing those edges, he realized they were still functional for what he needed to do, so he started from those to draw the circle to create charcoal. It took him much less time, and he quickly activated it when he was done, producing three charcoal sticks.

"Impressive," the blond grinned as he picked one of the charcoal sticks up, took the paper from where Hana had gathered it, and began drawing on the top sheet. A few moments later, he handed the first array to Genesis, then began working on the second as he said, "That's the one I gave to Fuhito."

While Eden was working on the second one, Genesis examined the first before saying, "At just a glance, it looks like it's going to tear human flesh apart while stabilizing the solidified energy of the Materia. How would this have helped?"

"Did you check the holes in it?" Eden asked, then set down the charcoal to meet the older man's eyes.

"I noticed, but I don't know of too many others who would. In fact, most of them wouldn't think there was anything strange about the instructions in this array to begin with, even knowing what it's meant to do. One array wouldn't normally need to do both of these things at once."

"Which is where this array comes into play," Eden agreed, passing the second array over so Genesis could see it. The red haired man placed the two one on top of the other, examining them closely before blinking and saying, "They fit together, and you literally had only half an array with the first one. These are two main arrays which do two halves of a big job, the first controlling the deconstruction and preparation, and the second directing the reconstruction of the parts. The reconstruction is the part you were controlling so you could get Felicia and Zirconaide to merge properly."

"Why would you bother with drawn arrays if you can do it the other way?" Karru suddenly asked. "Doesn't it take a lot more time to draw them than to just—imprint the arrays on your energy?"

Genesis and Eden blinked at her, but it was Hana who said, "Actually, Aunt Yuna explained to me that drawing them out for a fayth anchor is a lot more stable than just using your own mind. It's also why a fayth creates an array at its creation location of its own accord. When something you're doing is more stable, it's also more precise."

"Huh?" Karru asked with a puzzled frown.

"Mmm, it's like...when you practice in the Gamesphere room instead of just by yourself in your room. Practicing by yourself just means the motion is repetitive and works exactly the way you want it to, but the Gamesphere room varies your ability by giving you targets to attack which you need to damage to a certain degree to defeat them. You can't learn about pressure or how to fight or adaptability if you don't go out and fight actual opponents, but your results will never be as precise as when you're just training by yourself. Casting spells directly on the energy is less precise because the mind by nature can never focus one hundred percent on making something happen, so it always leaves variables. With the array drawn out, random thoughts can't influence it, meaning you can make it a lot more precise and detailed due to the stability of the drawn array. One is for battle, the other isn't."

"What's a Gamesphere room?" Eden asked curiously.

"A room with Spheres stuck in the walls and attached to a machine which lets the room recreate locations and scenarios for people to practice different kinds of skills with," Karru answered him with a grin. "They're especially fun for learning to fight, but you can even just go into them to relax or learn to sing or learn to work with machines."

Genesis and Eden traded looks before the older man commented, "It sounds like our VR rooms. What's a Sphere?"

"What's a VR room?" a confused Karru asked in reply.

"A VR room is a virtual reality room—it does essentially the same thing as your...Gamesphere room. We used it regularly for SOLDIER and Turk training," Genesis answered. "It wasn't a game for us, and the top two ranks were actually capable of killing the participants in the scenario. Angeal, Sephiroth, and I went there regularly to train and spar against one another, but we normally used a blank background for that, since we were our own most dangerous sparring partners. About the Spheres...?"

Hana chuckled faintly and said with sparkling eyes, "Those are bubbles of energy which hold everything from history records to memories to emotions, including visual memories. Spheres can be deliberately made by people who want to preserve something, accidentally by people who want to preserve something but weren't actually thinking of making a Sphere, or by gatherings of pyreflies where a strong memory or emotion remains. Throughout Spira's history, Sphere Hunting has been a prominent job which earns good money—Aunts Yuna and Rikku did some of that when they were young, even. Now, what are Materia, SOLDIER, and Turk?"

Genesis blinked as Eden snorted, and the older man began explaining those to Hana and Karru, who listened with rapt attention, as the blond relaxed and fell deep into thought.

FoW

Kariya rather liked being ignored so he could just wander around and listen to interesting discussions going on around the clearing. Eden and Genesis' had been good for some chuckles, but had also had some new, likely important, data in it, but it seemed the interesting parts of the discussion were done, so he wandered away from them. Not far away, Reno, Verdot, Veda, and someone from the Guardian Forces were talking with Sanni and Wakka, and the first thing he heard of their discussion was the fates of the five Sacred Beasts which had been on a collision course with their island. The two which had remained in the air had been defeated by Genesis and Sephiroth, and the three which had crash-landed on the island had been defeated by the Turks, the Moto Tribe, and the Guardian Forces.

After that, their discussion had largely turned to the differences between the Moto Tribe and the Ronsos. The bipedal cats apparently had horns which were their pride and joy, and having them removed was a shameful thing for them, though they had also changed a fair bit over time. At one point, not one of the Ronsos could have worked alongside the Al Bhed because they hadn't been technologically inclined, basing their lives around strength and combat skill—they hadn't even been very spiritual. These days, they had a spiritual sense similar to that of the Moto Tribe, and while they still valued strength and combat skill, they also valued engineers, scientists, and tinkerers, as those were people capable of finding solutions to problems. The Moto Tribe had always respected all skills, though were unable to perform any—delicate—ones due to the lack of appropriate digits on their front paws.

Not far beyond them, he found Riona, Cloud, and Anthony with a few random kids from the Shadowterra who had chosen to stay on the island for the moment (or their parents had, at least). He got close enough to them to hear the discussion as one twelve-year-old human girl held up a glowing, pinkish-red sphere and Cloud asked, "Dressphere?"

"It changes your appearance and gives you skills you wouldn't have had otherwise," the girl explained. "I'll show you with my Songstress Dressphere." A moment later, she went from wearing a knee-length dress with long sleeves, tall socks, and soft shoes to wearing a button-up tank top long enough to tuck into her skirt, frilly sleeves tied to her arms above the elbow, boots to the knee, and a skirt to mid-thigh with a sheer drape at the back falling to the knee. "It's different for everyone, though," she added in a sing-song voice with a cheerful grin.

"That's kinda cool, actually," Anthony commented in interest. "Can I try?"

"You want to try with Songstress?" the younger girl asked in surprise, switching back to her normal self.

"Sure," the black haired fourteen-year-old agreed, holding his hand out for the sphere. "Unless you don't want me to?"

She grinned and put the Sphere in his hand, saying, "You'll have to activate your Garment Grid, though. I don't think you've been using it yet, but that thing at your wrist might do it."

It took Anthony and the girl a couple minutes of playing to get it to work, at which time the boy found himself dressed in tight, white pants, a white tank top, a white and red cape, red boots, and red gloves. In his hand was a microphone. He tested a SOLDIER song on the microphone, then dropped out of it to offer the sphere to Riona and Cloud. Riona took it first, and earned an outfit similar to the younger girl's but with shorts instead of a skirt and long gloves rather than detached sleeves. Then, Cloud tried the Songstress Dressphere—and everyone nearby cracked up laughing as the blond blushed hotly.

Kariya had to hold a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud and revealing himself as he eyed the poor boy, who had very oddly found himself in a skirt. The skirt fell to mid-thigh, the top was a stylized tank top under a vest, the sleeves were detached and held at the top of the arm, just below the curve of the shoulder, and the boots were tall enough to cover his legs to the knee. He also had a frilly side-drape attached to the belt holding up the skirt, and a headband with a frilly, lace, flower-like device above his left ear. The skirt, vest, sleeves, and headband were in a bright, medium purple while the tank top, boots, belt, frilly drape, and frilly, flower-like device were in bright, medium blue. (1)

The older man was fairly certain Cloud would approach any other Dresspheres with a great deal of caution from that point on.

Walking away from them led Kariya to where Rufus, Reeve, Yuna, and Tidus sat at a much smaller table, mainly discussing where there would be places for the new arrivals to move to. There was the option of them moving into the areas of towns which had been destroyed, such as Besaid and Kilika, but then Reeve had to ask about the people cramped into the airships and the few defensible towns—wouldn't they want to move, or move back, into those areas? Yuna and Tidus had to admit there was actually a good chance of that, so Rufus and Reeve said they'd give it a few days to see if Minerva had accounted for them needing land space to live on, hopefully without displacing or overpopulating the world.

Unable to see the map they were looking at—beyond the fact that it seemed to be mostly water—Kariya moved on from them to find a few groups of Turks or SOLDIERs mourning their losses. He still felt the pain from losing Judet, but he'd gotten there only just in time to see her launch a killing strike at an enhanced Tonberry, and to see her die at the same moment it did. There was a fifteen-year-old young man laying unconscious under her body—he had been well within the range of the Tonberry's killing strike. He'd also had no time to intervene in the situation before it was already done. At the same time, he'd taken charge of the other two students she'd been assigned, did what he'd been able for the injured one, and kept his pair on lookout.

With nothing else to see there and not wanting to fall into another bout of tears, he moved on, finding his way to the airship shuttle where Tseng had been moved to. At the door, Sephiroth, Vant, and Angeal were standing together, the silver-haired man just looking drained. Vant had rested a hand on his shoulder, and Angeal looked a little depressed, but didn't seem to be all that talkative. He paused to look at them with mild worry, only for Vant to look up and meet his eyes.

"Kariya?" the other Turk asked. Sephiroth and Angeal both looked at him as well.

"Just making some rounds. How are you doing?" Kariya asked.

Vant sighed. "The SOLDIERs' death toll was higher than for any other group besides the jet fighters. Sephiroth has survivor's guilt, and Angeal watched many of his wash out to sea—and many of them didn't return alive, assuming they even returned. There's a good chance fiends got to the ones who vanished."

"People vanish at sea all the time, even if nothing 'got to them'," Kariya said, reaching over to pat Angeal's shoulder. "That's not your fault, either of you. There was nothing anyone could have done against that thing."

Vant sighed and said, "I went inside it. It seemed to have...been formed by the remnants of mothers and children murdered in bloody or painful ways. Probably most of those had been needless. And I can't shake the feeling that Wakka knows who was anchoring it."

Kariya blinked, assessing the words, then asked slowly, "Are you saying you got the shit end of the deal because he was there, and the end result may not have been so bad if he hadn't?"

Looking absently towards the door to Tseng's room, Vant gave his head a small shake and said, "I can't know for sure. It may be the other way around, and we got less than its worst because it knew him. Or, it honestly wouldn't have mattered and it simply was what it was."

"...Then what's the problem?" Kariya blinked.

"The monster—the fiend—was more powerful than Jenova," Sephiroth said.

"How?" the older man asked in shock.

"It could have been age," Vant said. "Or the way a fiend of that type forms. Either way, I could only do anything to it by going right to its core and destroying the central anchor. At least Jenova had no maze of a shell to get through. If there are any more of them on Spira..."

"We know there will be other fiends," Angeal put in, stating what Kariya was thinking just then. "What we don't know, and have no way of knowing, is whether we'll find any others of that type. Between Sin, Null, and this one—it isn't exactly uncommon for beasts like that to come to exist. The worst part is that I don't think Minerva can lay to rest one so powerful—we'll have to defeat them."

"...Yeah, that's a problem, isn't it?" Kariya sighed. "And the other problem is going to be getting these people to reach the same point _we_ were trying to reach, to change society for the better so we don't have to deal with war, and torture, and suffering. Somehow, I don't think that's any better for Spira's sentience than it is for Minerva."

"After all of this, I hope they will be inclined towards peace," Sephiroth sighed tiredly. "There is quite enough strife stemming from the fiends—why should they create even more war and suffering?"

"Why did _we_?" Kariya asked curiously with a raised brow.

Silence fell as the other three stared at him in surprise, then resignation.

 **Notes:**

(1) I did this as sort of a tribute to Cloud's cross-dressing scene to try to 'rescue' Tifa from Don Corneo with Aeris in FFVII. And I thought it would be a hoot. If Cloud shows up in any other Dresspheres (the verdict it still out on that, but they needed something to laugh at just now), they'll be more masculine forms, not a blatant feminine one like Songstress is for him. While 'Songstress' by nature should be 'feminine', Paine's version of the outfit is strongly masculine, so it's fully capable of creating a male form outfit—it just didn't for Cloud, but did for Anthony, and did a cross between masculine and feminine for Elena. :P


	48. 45-Essence Flaw

**A/N:** Sorry, the first part of this HAS to happen—it's already waited a bit long to be addressed. The other issue in need of addressing will be in a couple more chapters, but not much longer in in-story time.

Essence Flaw

Reno was sitting tiredly at one of the tables near the edge of the clearing, eyes closed and head tipped skyward, where the sun was high overhead—everyone had just eaten lunch. There were dark circles under his eyes, showing how tired he was, but he had no reaction to Eden sitting beside him with a sigh. The blond only knew the older Turk was aware of him because Reno asked, "Whaddaya want, Eden?"

After a moment, Eden asked, "How are you doing? You were closer to Judet—and the others—than I was...I don't think you've really had time to mourn, have you?"

With a sigh, Reno leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees and drop his head into his hands. "I'd thought it was bad just after the monsters..." There was a pause, then Reno went on, "When Alvis 'n' Maur both died. But back then, Tseng was the one who had ta carry the burden. This time, I gotta do it, an'...now I know why I just— _knew_ I had ta go back ta help him later that day. It's hard when ya know the one who died, yo...But it's _way harder_ when you gotta keep it all together _all the time_ 'cause everyone's countin' on you ta make sure _they're_ okay..."

"...Do you have someone who can take over for you?" Eden asked quietly. "Even just for a few hours?"

"Nope," the red haired man sighed heavily. "That...woulda been Alvis, or even Judet, but..."

"...You're the last commander of the Turks who can take over while Tseng is unconscious," the blond finished the sentence. When Reno gave a small nod into his hands, Eden shocked him—and himself—by reaching out to hug the older man. Despite how surprised he was by the action, Eden also realized he had a very strong feeling it was needed. "Have you even cried for her yet? If not, you should."

"But everyone—" Reno began, starting to pull away. Eden's grip tightened, and while Reno 'could' have broken it, some part of him was grateful that someone cared enough to offer him support.

"Reno," Eden cut him off quietly. "You're human. You need to let out those feelings. I don't cry easily—actually, ending up on Gaia and having my whole world view re-written has gotten me to cry more than I would have ever thought to before. You know about my childhood, right?" Reno relaxed against him and nodded into his shoulder, so he went on, "I know how it feels to be left responsible for someone else. I also know it put me in a very bad headspace because I really felt I had no one I could turn to who would understand what I was going through. Reno, _no one_ will fault you for letting out your feelings—we've all lost people we care about, and that's _without_ even having the full death toll from when the President blew up the Planet."

"He's right," Rude agreed softly as he joined them and sat to Reno's other side, resting a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "We won't fault you."

It seemed that, with both Eden and Rude—the rather odd 'father and son' pair—giving him the same encouragement, Reno was able to let the dam break to cry softly on Eden's shoulder for nearly an hour. He'd known Judet for longer than he'd known Alvis; he had been as close to her as he had been to Alvis, just in a different way. The chaos of rebuilding Midgar had left him little time to mourn Alvis and Maur, and their deaths hadn't really been very long ago in active memory. While 'time' in stasis had put some distance between him and Alvis' and Maur's deaths, Judet's had been made a harder blow by his unfinished mourning for the two men, and to add to that the other deaths in the Turks and the students who had fought alongside them...

As Rude and Eden sat with Reno, the other Turks gradually began gathering around them, not saying anything, just being there. That included the Turks from other offices and the wanderers, all ones Eden barely knew anything about, and many of the students the Turks had been watching out for during the battle. All of them seemed to know, to realize, what was happening.

Finally, the student Judet had saved (still with minor injuries, as the Cetra had been tired by that point) joined them, kneeling in front of Reno as he rested a hand on the Turk's shoulder. Reno, tear-streaked and miserable, tilted his head enough to look at the fifteen-year-old—and saw tears in his eyes.

"I'm the one she saved," the fifteen-year-old said softly, voice breaking with pain.

There was a pause, then Reno sat up enough to reach out and pull the student into a tight hug. Both wept on one another's shoulders, and while Reno was no longer crying on Eden's shoulder, the blond Turk didn't move away. With the student's inclusion in the group, the rest began to close ranks around them, many leaning on one another for support as well.

FoW

Everyone from Gaia gave the gathering of Turks—and future Turks—a wide berth, prompting Yuna to ask Genesis, "What are they doing that everyone is avoiding them?"

Genesis was quiet for a moment before he said, "Turks are family to one another. They aren't just friends...Often, they also don't have any family outside the Turks. When a Turk dies, it's a heavy blow for them all, and they mourn quietly, but with a frightening intensity. You're seeing them gather protectively around the ones worst hurt by the deaths of the Turks—and the potential Turks—they just lost."

After a pause, Yuna asked, "Do they need someone to help guide them to send the dead on?"

"No," Genesis answered, giving her a faintly amused, tiny smile. "They aren't trying to wish the dead back to life, to create a beckoned. They're releasing them fully. That's probably part of the reason for the intensity, so they _can let them go_."

The woman gazed at the group thoughtfully for a long moment before asking, "Then why the avoidance?"

A voice behind her caused her to start as she turned to face Reeve, who said in a soft tone, "Mourning is practically sacred to the Turks, because blessed few outside their number would ever mourn them. President Shinra and most of his executives felt nothing for them beyond that they were useful and dangerous tools—"

"People," Yuna immediately cut in with her correction.

Reeve met her gaze with a surprising depth of sorrow as he said, "To me, and to you, yes. To their former employers, they were _tools_ , not people. And they were treated exactly like tools—to be used until they broke, then tossed in the trash so they could go find another tool to do the same thing to. I felt their losses, and possibly Rufus did as well, but I can't say anyone else in Shinra Company, besides some of the SOLDIERs and Infantry they'd gotten familiar with, ever mourned a Turk."

The woman's eyes widened and she said quietly, "That's horrible..."

"Yes," Reeve agreed. "And it's exactly for that reason that Turks don't take kindly to 'outsiders' interrupting their few sacred events—bringing in new Turks, sending them on, choosing a new Director or Second. Sometimes there are missions which can count in the number of sacred events, but this—even Genesis, who is friendly with several of the Turks, can't safely approach them to offer condolences right now. Until that circle breaks, you're risking your life by getting too close to them. That's what their virtual isolation did to them."

Yuna turned back to look at them sadly as she realized what kind of people the Turks were. For the fact that there were so many of them, normally it would have frightened her to realize one single 'Summoner' had so many absolutely loyal 'Guardians', but there was no question in her mind that everything they were was on the level of what she'd had with her Guardians. Maybe the Summoner and Guardians didn't begin as people so close, but it was rare for the Summoner and Guardians to not have formed such a deep bond by the end of their journey. For so many to have been forced into such a tight bond was painful, frightening, and heart-warming, all at once.

Finally, she turned back to Reeve and asked, "Do the Turks..." She paused mid-question, breaking off to ask instead, "Are they actually dangerous to society?"

Genesis had to snort at the question as Reeve gave her a faintly amused look, but he said, "In terms of what they're capable of, the number we've got here could destroy the world if they so chose to." Yuna's eyes widened in alarm, but he gave his head a shake and went on, "By what they've been doing since Eden came into all our lives, they're firmly on the side of doing whatever it takes to save both the planet and the people on it. I know—I've been working with them towards that end. The President was the one failing point in the situation. But you also need to realize that the Turks are loyal to one another _before_ anything or anyone else. If you don't want to earn their ire, don't go out of your way to threaten or harm one of them."

"What of the students?" Yuna asked tentatively.

"About half of the students who'd been trying for the Turks—of the ones who are still alive—are standing with them now," Genesis said. "So those ones are going to become Turks in short order. The ones who aren't there with them won't be allowed to join the Turks after refusing to pay their respects, assuming those ones still have some desire to be Turks. I think they didn't join the group because they realized being a Turk wasn't all it was cracked up to be when they were looking at the 'fun' parts of the job. They may have the skills, but they now realize they don't have the will. And we'd better hold off on any more meetings until they've—calmed down."

"Shouldn't they have done that last night?" a woman's voice asked from behind Reeve, and the other three turned to face Hana and Karru, the younger attached to the older's arm again. It was Hana who had asked the question.

Reeve and Genesis traded looks, but as they were about to answer, an annoyed voice said from behind the younger girls, "Some of them began mourning last night, for the ones who had enough energy after the search-and-rescue operation. However, one of them most definitely _did not_ , because he's been shoved into the role of Director while Tseng is down for the count. This—it's Reno finally going through the process. Now, if you don't mind, I haven't had any time to mourn, either, and Judet was a good woman, one I knew personally, so I'm going to join them." They all stared in surprise as Rufus marched past them and right to the Turks.

Everyone waited with baited breath as they felt sure the Turks would lash out at him—but instead, to everyone's amazement, the circle parted just enough to let him in, and he quickly disappeared into the circle as it closed again behind him.

"Did that really just happen?" Genesis asked in pouting bemusement.

Reeve suddenly gave a small chuckle. "Rufus is a Turk."

"What?" the red haired man asked with a small frown, turning a sharp gaze on the older man.

"Genesis, you traveled with Rufus. As he fought, as he became stronger, what began to happen between him and the Turks?" Reeve asked in reply.

The red haired man turned back to eye the gathering of Turks thoughtfully for a moment before his expression became a full pout and he said, "So they eventually accepted _him_ as one of them, but _I'm_ still an outsider..."

"Well, if you think about it, he's been exposed to the Turks since he was born, and was practically _raised_ by them—did you even know Lady Shinra is the one who formed the Turks? I sort of think it would have been inevitable, once he actually matured. Eden just...sped up the process, I think," the older man explained, sounding faintly amused.

With a sigh, the younger man gave the circle one last look before turning to the younger girls and asking, "What did the two of you need?"

"There's a girl at the foot of Omega Rock, and I'm sure she wasn't there before," Hana said. "Aunt Rikku is with her, but we weren't sure if she was hurt, so we didn't want to move her, and my healing isn't—fully under my control yet."

"A girl?" the others all blinked.

"We'll show you!" Karru eagerly agreed, detaching from Hana's arm to grab Genesis' hand and pull him after her. "Come to think of it, she looks a lot like you!"

"Looks a—" Genesis began in confusion as he let the girl pull him—but then he drew in a sharp breath and gasped, "Shelke?"

"Who?" Karru asked, glancing back at him. She then turned forward again as she made her way around the side of the Rock, to the edge of the pool of clean water.

Genesis didn't answer, peering ahead of them intently in worry, and as they neared the pool, he saw blond Rikku sitting cross-legged on the far side of a small form. A few steps more, and Genesis could make out the girl's features—it _was_ Shelke. He ran forward, pale as he prayed his sister was okay, switching off Materia so he could first cast Sense on her, then cast healing—why was she injured? They weren't serious injuries, but they were internal, and stood to cause a lot of harm if left unattended. He fell to his knees beside her, scooped her into his arms, and released his wings so he could carry her back to the Turks.

He only barely had the sense not to land in the middle of the circle, but as soon as his feet had touched the ground, he shouted urgently, "Kariya!"

Many of the Turks jumped and reached for weapons, but someone in the crowd called sharply, "Calm down!"

A few moments later, the crowd parted to let Kariya out—and his eyes widened as he ran to Genesis to check Shelke for injuries. "What happened?" he asked tensely.

"Apparently, Karru, Hana, and Rikku found her near the pool of water on the far side of Omega Rock," Genesis explained. "She was unconscious, so Rikku stayed with her while Karru and Hana came to find some of us, and likely Yuna, knowing she's a healer. I used Sense on Shelke when I got there, and her body was riddled with—with _holes_ , like some warped kind of cancer. I fixed that, but she still isn't showing any signs of waking, and we don't know what caused it! She—"

At that point, Kariya reached up to wrap a hand around the back of his son's neck and said, "Stop it. Calm down. You've done what you can for her, and right now, we need to figure out what happened. I'd first be inclined to try the Cetra or Felicia."

Genesis' mouth opened, then closed, then opened again—but Kariya lifted Shelke out of the younger man's arms and said, "Go find them while I keep an eye on her."

For a moment, Genesis looked down at his empty hands, somehow feeling bereft without Shelke there, but he knew their father would take care of her, so he slowly nodded. He then flew up into the air so he had a good view of the area, but he couldn't actively see any of the Cetra or Felicia nearby. Biting his lip for a moment while he thought about how to proceed, he quickly decided to try the shore, so flew out to it. As it turned out, Felicia and Shears weren't hard to find, sitting as they were on one of the large rocks shifted by the tidal wave. He flew down and landed in front of them, causing Shears to glare and Felicia to blink in surprise.

"What's the matter, Genesis?" Felicia asked before Shears could speak.

"Something happened to Shelke, but we have no way of knowing what unless someone can ask Minerva how she became—injured? Or ill?—while inside the Omega body," Genesis explained tensely.

"Shelke? Your youngest sister?" the woman blinked in surprise. When Genesis nodded, she said, "Hang on. I'll see if I can ask her—if she knows." Again, the man nodded, and Felicia's gaze moved into the distance, looking glassy and absent. She remained like that for several minutes, though her facial expressions changed a few times, largely to become puzzled, upset, or sad.

Finally, her gaze cleared and focused on Genesis, who asked, "What did you find out?"

"Apparently, there was an unexpected side-effect to Minerva housing herself in Shelke's body for some time during the monster attack in Midgar," the woman sighed.

"What?" the red haired man asked in confusion.

"During the attack, Minerva needed to get to Sephiroth and his clone to prevent a worse situation, and the only way she could do that was by choosing someone with Cetra blood in the vicinity to move some of her direct essence to and have that person carry her to the two men. The person she chose was Shelke." Felicia paused, then sighed and said, "If she'd stayed on Gaia, it wouldn't have been a problem because she'd only have exposure to Minerva's essence, but just being here exposes her to the other entity's essence, and her body can't physically handle the...I guess it's a variance between the two entities? Her body began deteriorating just from minimal influence, and she basically needs to be surrounded by a very tight bubble of Lifestream until Minerva and the entity are finished working out what they're going to do with this world now."

Genesis felt like he'd been hit in the gut with a hammer. "How are we supposed to do that?" he asked in a pained voice so full of grief, fear, and something approaching hopelessness, that even Shears gave him a pitying look.

Felicia gave her head a small shake and replied, "There's a young Cetra Healer, a man about—well, Minerva doesn't know age the same way we do, so she says he's similar in age to 'her Beloved Child'. Do you know who that is?"

After blinking, he said, "That's what Minerva always calls Aeris."

"So, this boy is similar in age to her, maybe a little younger. But he inherited the rare ability last held by Aeris' mother, the ability to channel Lifestream energy into a physical body. He should be able to create the bubble Shelke needs, but she needed to be out here for him to help her. You'll find most of the Cetra near the Mako pool, and he and one of the other younger Cetra are—stuck in a hole not far from there. A few of the others should be trying to get the two out, but maybe you'll be able to help them?"

"If that's Shelke's best bet, I'll do it," Genesis announced fiercely. "Thanks for sharing what you could, Felicia." She gave him a nod, and he took back to the air to head for the Mako pool which was further past the pool of clear water.

It didn't take long for him to find them—and from there, he could also see where a few were a ways into the less dense forest in the area, gathered together as they tried to do something. He landed by them and asked, "What's the matter?"

They started and looked up at him, then one woman said, "Two of our young Healers were exploring and seem to have fallen into an awkward hole. We would need one with skills such as Eden's to safely open the hole enough for them to exit it."

He moved over to the hole to peer at it—and immediately realized why they couldn't even use a drawn array. The soil there was somehow so dry it was crumbling and loose, so there were no foot- or hand-holds, and no ready place which would hold a drawn array with the crumbling. With a small frown at what could have caused the drying effect, Genesis recalled what he knew of the earth arrays Eden manipulated so often. While it was possible, even likely, he could make the same kinds of permanent changes, he was too new to casting with an array imprinted on his own energy to feel quite safe using that method when lives were at stake.

Facing the three with him, he said, "In this case, I know the kind of casting you mean, but I'm not nearly as skilled at that as Eden. However, I have another option which should last long enough to get them out—I can modify a Quake spell to give them a path out. However, I'm going to have to use a lot of energy to hold it until they're out, so you'd better be ready to move them away from the hole quickly."

They nodded, so he extended his hand as he cast through the Earth Materia while modifying the arrays to solidify the land and form steps on the side nearest the three with him. It didn't take long for a slender hand to reach out of the hole, and one man caught the hand, pulling a woman of about fourteen or fifteen free. A few moments later, another, less delicate hand reached out, and the other man pulled a man of about the same age free. They quickly moved away from the hole, and Genesis released the casting—which had the startling side-effect of causing the hole to collapse in on itself as it spewed a cloud of dust into the air.

When the dust settled, Genesis turned to look at the five, and the youngest man met his gaze to say, "Minerva said you need my help for a girl's health?"

"From what I've been told, she housed some of Minerva's essence directly in her body for some time, resulting in this world's energy damaging her. The only real option right now is to surround her in a 'very tight Lifestream bubble'—whatever that means," Genesis quickly explained.

"A...bubble...?" the boy mused, gaze thoughtful and absent. Genesis just waited for the few minutes it took for the man to look at him again and say, "Then take me to her, and I shall see what I may do. There is more than one possible method, but I would need to test them to discover the most effective. In the meantime, you may need to heal her several times."

"I don't know that I have enough energy for that, especially now," Genesis answered tensely. "Could a natural healer like Yuna help?"

"No. Yuna uses this world's essence in healing," the young man replied. "We Cetra are all too exhausted, leaving only any others you feel have enough skill, will, and energy to heal her with. I am only able to assist because this skill operates on a different energy system than our standard healing skills do."

Genesis gave a sharp nod and said tensely, "I'll hope the Turks, SOLDIERs, and-or Wutains will fill that gap, then."

"An Eidolon may be able to assist you, assuming you are able to find a free-roaming healer," one of the older men offered. He then faced the younger and said, "Selvin, remember to rest when you have finished. Your mother shall find you later."

"Of course. Thank you," the younger man, who the SOLDIER now knew was named Selvin, agreed, then turned to Genesis. "Shall we, then?"

With a nod, Genesis said, "Thank you for agreeing to help." He then moved over to lift the slender teen and took to the air to carry him back to the Turks and Shelke.

That time, when he landed and set Selvin down, he could see that the circle formed by the Turks had loosened, though there was still a wall between him and some key Turks—Reno and Rufus were notably absent from the outer circle. Kariya had sat down cross-legged nearby, with Shelke in his lap and an arm supporting her shoulders and head, and many of the Turks who had met the girl had gathered around her, their worry clear. Several SOLDIERs had also moved to join them—Anthony, Cloud, Zack, even Angeal and Sephiroth.

Genesis quickly explained the situation, then said, "The only thing we're still short on is finding people who can heal her when we have to exclude the people of Spira by default and the Cetra are almost entirely exhausted. I haven't got much left, either."

"I believe there are enough of us here to heal her as needed," Sephiroth said.

"And we can always get Kunzel and some of the other SOLDIER-Mages to do some healing, 'cause I doubt they'd leave a little girl to suffer if they can help, you know?" Zack jumped in to offer.

"We'll help, too," Riona said, and Emma—right beside her—nodded her agreement. "We—mostly—got half-decent sleeps last night, so we were able to replenish our energy—casting some healing spread across all of us should work out fine. Besides, Turks can't just leave a little girl to suffer, either, and Shelke's my friend."

"Thank you, everyone," both Genesis and Kariya breathed in relief.

Selvin moved over to Kariya and Shelke, kneeling beside them and placing a hand on her forehead. Everyone gathered there watched in fascination as bands of energy which resembled Lifestream began swirling down his arm and vanishing into the girl's head. After a few minutes of that, he sat back a bit with a small sigh, mind clearly working on the problem intently. Another couple minutes later, he'd made some sort of decision and rested his hand on her forehead again, repeating the energy process. That time, when he lifted his hand, he was frowning faintly.

"As I feared, this will take some time," he said, looking up at Kariya. "She will need healing periodically until I am able to correctly form a barrier of sorts for her, though attempting to separate the energies of this entity and Minerva from one another is—rather difficult."

"Why?" Kariya blinked.

"I could hazard a guess and say it's because most of the people on Gaia are actually blood-related to the people here, which means Shelke has some genes which tie directly into this world's sentience," Eden said suddenly, and all eyes moved to him.

"As that seems to be the case, the situation requires me to somehow separate part of her basic genetics from the remainder of her body, without causing her bodily functions to simply—cease," Selvin explained to the others.

"Do the best you can, then," Kariya told him simply.

He nodded and went back to work.


	49. 46-Stress

Stress

As it turned out, many of the Gaians volunteered to provide some healing to Shelke while Selvin worked. However, afternoon passed into evening, and evening passed into night with no change and no success, causing many to worry. Few Gaians got any rest that night, and as night passed into morning, Selvin was still trying to find a way to keep Shelke safe from the damage being done to her body. The Turks' mourning circle had long since fully broken, and many had managed to eat some sort of supper and breakfast, though worry kept a fair number of them from eating full meals. SOLDIERs, whose bodies demanded more food intake than normal humans, ate full helpings only because they weren't able to refuse.

Karru sat at a table near where Genesis, Kariya, Selvin, and Shelke were—they'd moved to a shelter of a sort Eden had made for them with wood and stone at the edge of the clearing. At the table with her sat Aunt Yuna, Uncle Tidus, and Hana, and Aunt Rikku and Uncle Wakka were both also nearby, Uncle Wakka just standing a couple feet away and Aunt Rikku with Aunt Sanni and a couple other Captains sitting at the next table over with a Record Sphere. Since Aunts Rikku and Sanni were working, that left the others to watch the proceedings.

"All right, Yuna?" Tidus suddenly asked the brown haired woman, and Karru turned to look at them, seeing the apprehensive frown on Yuna's face.

With a mildly upset look, Yuna said, "I'm...worried."

"About?" Tidus asked in faint surprise, and Wakka turned to look at them, too.

"The girl, you mean?" Wakka asked after a moment of silence, when it looked like Yuna wasn't going to answer. "She'll be fine, I think. They're working too hard for her not to be."

"No, not..." Yuna began, then stopped again.

After another pause, Tidus reached over and rested a hand on hers, saying, "You know we can't read your mind, Yuna. You'll have to _tell_ us what's bothering you."

She gave him a mildly annoyed look, but left her hand under his as she looked back at the group. "As much as I feel for their plight, these people are shockingly powerful—and shockingly dangerous. If they were to attack us, I honestly feel we wouldn't be able to stop them. To make matters worse, their 'world sentience' is much more active than ours ever has been, and is forcing changes in the flows of Spira. If even one of those is made in a slightly incorrect way, it could destroy us. But honestly, their combat skill alone, and what they said about how they came to be here, indicates they're just as war-like as we are, maybe more-so."

"...You think they're going to try to slaughter us all or destroy Spira?" Tidus asked with a startled blink.

"They won't!" Karru cut in, glaring hotly at Yuna.

"Karru—" Yuna began in her 'most patient adult' voice.

"No!" the thirteen-year-old snapped. "I'm not saying this as a willful child, I'm saying this as a survivor of this battle, and of the tidal wave. I _saw_ —Aunt Yuna, I helped them save people, the search-and-rescue, watched how they behaved, how they talked with one another and me! I watched them work just as hard to save our jet fighters as their own people, watched them heal my—our—injuries as freely as their own. I've spent a lot more time with them than you have. _They aren't our enemies_!"

"And yet, the Turks could destroy the world. Even their own leaders know that," Yuna replied to the girl, gaze shadowed.

Wakka tipped his head to the side and said, "Ya, you could say that, but Yuna—that ain't what _I_ saw from 'em either. I think Karru's got the right of this. After all, we all know first-hand that having power doesn't mean it'll be used, an' not having it doesn't mean everyone's safe. Stupid, weak people're more dangerous than smart, strong ones. The _really_ dangerous ones're the ones who're stupid _and strong_. These guys are smart and strong, and worked hard to save us already."

"Yeah!" Karru quickly agreed.

"And what would stop them from turning their power against us?" Yuna asked the older man in an oddly flat tone. "Especially if we find there's no land for them here?"

A moment later, Rikku was leaning over Yuna, hugging her around the shoulders with her chin resting on top of Yuna's head. "Yuu~nie!" Rikku practically chirped. "It's great that you're all—looking out for everyone and all, but seriously—don't see problems, or make them, where they don't exist."

"I'm not—" Yuna began to protest.

"You are, Yunie, and you _know_ it," Rikku replied with a wide grin as she hugged the other woman more tightly. "Something's wrong here, but it's not with _them_. We're all feeling the stress, you know? What do we do with them, where do we put them? How will they fit in with us? There are a lot of questions, and we don't have answers." The blond let Yuna go and moved over to sit on the edge of the table beside and facing Yuna. "But you know what really makes me think we don't have to be afraid of them trying to murder us all in our sleep or whatever?"

"What's that?" the brown haired woman asked with a small frown.

"You weren't here when the battle happened or the tidal wave hit," Rikku said in an oddly serious tone for her, causing everyone else at the table to focus intently on her. "I watched their horror, their pain, their hurt, at seeing the Shadowterra downed, at the results of defeating the Sin-level Adamantoise. It was just like ours. They're mostly just like us, and they _care_. Even about complete strangers. _They care_." She then grinned as she reached out to muss up Yuna's hair, finishing with, "People who _care_ aren't as likely to try to destroy anything as people who _don't_ , you know?"

Still, Yuna hesitated, using trying to fix her hair as a stalling tactic, her expression absent. She was about to say something when someone tapped her shoulder, and she turned to face the person in surprise, as did the others. What they saw was one of the men who were called 'Turks', one of the rougher-looking ones in the group, one who gave an impression of silent power and of being 'tough-as-nails'. The pattern shaved into the side of his head made Yuna blink, and Karru grinned as she realized he'd heard the whole discussion.

"I don't blame you for thinking we're dangerous—we've been trained to be, and we know it," he told her. She blinked at him again. "People are very good at training themselves to live, to survive, in any situation. I've been at the bottom of the scale, the worst life had to offer, and I honestly thought at one time that I had no reason to care. Most of the Turks, the SOLDIERs—anyone who was under Shinra's control—went through a phase like that."

Her eyes widened in horror, but he looked away, in the direction of Shelke and her carers. "Then things began to happen which were honestly worse than I'd already lived through. We had our eyes brutally opened to the fact that, if we didn't change things, we were _all_ going to die." His gaze moved back to her. "That didn't mean anything as mundane as war. We were destroying our own world by causing one another so much suffering, and we had to stop that massive degree of suffering if we expected to save our world, to have any chance to do so."

Leaning forward a bit, he tipped his head slightly to the side as he went on, "There was a hidden experimental facility. Shelke was one of the few we were able to save from there—all the Turks, all the SOLDIERs—she's one of the ones we could rehabilitate after the torture they suffered there. We had to slaughter the rest because they were either insane or soulless dolls. _A thousand people_ met that fate at our hands." The Spirans' eyes all widened as they paled. "What that did to our psyches was a major reason why we chose a path opposite—what we experienced then. And we _still_ couldn't save Gaia, but at least Minerva was willing to give us another chance."

"Chance for what?" Yuna asked softly.

"To prevent that kind of suffering from happening again. To teach the people to come—our children and grandchildren—another way to live," the Turk answered. His lips quirked in faint amusement. "To effectively make people like the Turks obsolete one day, hopefully _before_ we all died. This is our life, but it doesn't mean we _want_ others to live the way we were forced to live. We're not looking for a war, Yuna, but if you attack us, we'll defend ourselves and our people, just like _you_ would if _you_ were attacked. If neither of us attacks the other, we'll never have a war. There's no war if all everyone's doing is defending themselves, waiting for someone else to make the first move. Let's keep things that way."

"What if we have no land for you?" the 'younger' woman asked.

The Turk shrugged. "Minerva isn't that stupid or that uncaring towards her children. She _will_ provide for us, _without_ encroaching on your lands, because she doesn't believe in _that_ way, either."

"You seem awfully sure of that," Wakka commented.

With a smile, the man said, "I met her and spoke with her. She's like a kind and caring mother, someone who wants all of us to live peacefully, happily, without suffering. She can't stop all kinds of pain, but it's in her nature to provide land and food for us—to provide us with the resources so we can live without having to worry about where our next meal will come from. _We're_ the ones who screwed that up with greed, not her. She's going to provide for us here, too, if her track record is anything to go by. Using it correctly— _that's_ where we need to work out a better way than the one we once lived in."

"...And you are who, besides a Turk?" Yuna asked thoughtfully.

"Ruluf," he replied, then gave her a small nod. "It's wise to know about others around you, especially new arrivals. I'd have truly been worried about you if none of you had any apprehension about us. The fact is, we _are_ strangers, and you need time to get to know us. But your caution was dangerously approaching an unwarranted preemptive strike just now, and that would have truly been devastating for us all. By your world's own history, you've all seen just as much death as we have—and it's time to change that cycle, don't you think? We're not going to take from you anything you can't, or won't, give us. That won't serve any purpose at this point, so let's all just wait and see what happens."

"See?" Karru asked Yuna with a smug look. "They _care_ —they aren't our enemies!"

Ruluf sighed faintly as he shook his head in faint amusement. "Thank you for the vote of confidence, Karru."

"Why do you all know my name?" Karru blinked. "I only met Verdot, Reno, Eden, and Emma from the Turks."

His lips quirked in amusement again, then spread into a fully amused smile. "We Turks like to talk with one another, youngster. Meeting one Turk is pretty much your introduction to us all. That's what investigators _do_ —make sure their co-workers are up-to-date on happenings. We honestly had no idea how long you were going to be in our care, so in the interests of keeping you safe, everyone needed to know to watch out for you if they happened to see you."

Yuna actually chuckled at the words, then sighed and said, "I supposed what's most unsettling is the changes in the energies I'm used to feeling."

"It's strange for us, too," Ruluf told the brown haired woman, lifting one shoulder in a small shrug. "We're solid, but composed purely of Minerva's energy, so I think a lot of us are somewhat overreacting to things we'd usually work on very efficiently because we can also sense the changes in the energies around us. Shelke—what's happening to her now is the extreme end of that scale. And you're right that one wrong move on Minerva's and your entity's parts could be devastating for the world. I would hope, however, that they'd know enough and be cautious enough to not have that problem."

There was a long moment of silence, then Yuna asked, "Your entity and ours, you apparently have some idea of their appearance?"

"We know only that yours seems to be male, and currently has the appearance of a toddler," the Turk told her. "The impression we were given is that he wouldn't normally look like that, but he's running short—very short—on energy right now. Minerva is a grown woman with a middle-aged appearance, her hair blond and her eyes the same green as Selvin over there, and as Aeris."

"Who?" Tidus asked.

"That's me!" a cheerful voice said from behind him—across the table from Yuna and Ruluf—making everyone turn to look at her. She was smiling as she said, "Hello again, Yuna. Thank you for coming to see Tseng earlier."

Yuna inclined her head with a small smile. "I was curious about his state after hearing from the others about his transformation. Had I tried to heal him directly, he'd be in the same state as Shelke, but by sharing energy with Hikari, she had more energy to heal him with. Since I couldn't help Shelke, that was something I _could_ do."

Aeris nodded. "If he wakes even a little sooner, that will be very good. In all honesty, even though everyone's been doing well holding themselves together since the battle, we all need him back—we'll start drifting apart without him to anchor us. Anyway, what were you saying about me?"

"I was just telling them about how Minerva has eyes the same color as yours," Ruluf told her. "I'm guessing your absence has been due to spending time with Tseng, Flower Girl?"

"Yup," she agreed with a grin. "And it would be more accurate to say we have the same color of eyes as Minerva, since she came first. It's a trait of the Cetra. At least, of the ones who are a quarter Cetra or more. Anything less than that is a shot in the dark, as we know from Eden, Genesis, Shelke, and Shalua, and even Kariya. Even though Kariya has green eyes—they aren't Cetra green. Even Genesis' probably weren't before the Mako made them blue. Why were you discussing our eyes?"

"I asked about the appearances of the world entities," Yuna offered that time.

"I don't see what it matters for," Karru put in with a pout.

"A child entity is more likely to have to give way for an older, more powerful one," Yuna sighed, giving her head a small shake.

"If you were dealing with Jenova, that would be something to worry about," Aeris agreed. "Jenova was another Omega—a planetary entity—who arrived on our world about a thousand years before your people did. But, she was insane and tried to destroy everything, and we only just finally severed her completely from our world's system before we ended up here. Minerva isn't like that. She and your entity are legitimately working out how best to arrange the world to keep the best of ours and the best of yours. We aren't getting a lot of that right now, but it looks like the fiends will mostly stop, but they'll be replaced with similar beings we call monsters—the dead will actually move on now—and the Farplane will stay mostly intact, but with the ability to allow people to see loved ones who have passed on. At least, that's what it sounds like so far."

"Why would we still have monsters to fight?" Rikku blinked in surprise. "That sounds like we're being chaffed something awful."

"It would be too boring without monsters, especially if we start making peace between people," Karru grinned in amusement, realizing why the entities would want to keep that. "Are monsters more violent or less?"

"You mean how likely they are to attack?" Aeris asked in mild confusion. When Karru nodded, the older girl said, "I guess when they aren't being pushed by Jenova, they're only a little more likely than any normal animal to attack people, though they are still known to do so. Especially if they wandered out of their natural territory. They weren't inclined to attack larger cities, mostly small towns and travelers, too—by your current world state, there would be very few towns they would want to try attacking."

"That would leave most of our people safe, then, is what you're saying?" Wakka asked curiously.

"Mostly," Aeris agreed. "There weren't monsters who attacked airships on our world, either—even the flying monsters left the airships alone. Some of your 'fiends' will stay, only because they were legitimate creatures, species of this world, not angry dead people taking that form. Though, those ones will more accurately qualify as monsters."

"What of the Farplane letting people see loved ones who have passed on?" Yuna asked thoughtfully. "As it already does that, it sounds as though it isn't changing."

Shaking her head, the younger woman admitted, "I don't have all the details, but it sounds like it's being changed to let you interact with them. It's not a use-all, either, but I couldn't hear the terms from the murmurings I heard. Also, it sounded like the 'Summoners' were supposed to be a 'race' similar to the Cetra, who were meant to maintain the world's flow for your world's entity, and by the other changes being made, you may now find yourselves hearing the same things as the Cetra do from Minerva, but from your entity instead."

"But Summoners aren't a race, that's a trained skill," Rikku blinked. "Right, Yunie?"

"Can just _anyone_ learn it, or is it very specific?" Aeris asked in reply.

Yuna looked cautious as she said slowly, "Only some people can become Summoners. Some train for years, decades even, and still never manage. It seems to be something certain people are born able to do, and others are only capable of 'learning about it', not _doing_ it." She paused, then gave her head a small shake and said, "But I don't believe that qualifies us as a 'race'. More accurately, I believe it qualifies us as an independent religious sect of a sort. If the terms were to include speaking with our world's entity, that would be even more true, and we would have to work very hard to refrain from misusing such power..."

"The Cetra never needed to worry about that, because we could hear Minerva's voice and the voices of the dead, feel those people die and rejoin the Lifestream," Aeris told the older brown haired woman with a smile. "It's hard to stop caring when you feel all deaths and know a little about how they got that way."

As Yuna was about to reply in surprise, she was interrupted by a woman's voice saying, "As good as all that is, you need to know I'm heading back to the Aeroterra to check out something on our monitors." The others looked to see Sanni standing beside her seat at the next table. "I should be back soon. Are you coming back to the Aeroterra or staying here, Karru?"

"Staying! I want to know if that girl—Shelke—will be okay!" Karru replied right away, gaze hopeful as she met her Aunt's eyes.

With a sigh, Sanni nodded and replied, "Fine. At least I know these people won't hurt you or let you hurt yourself." Her gaze met Yuna's as she added, "And so you know, we're not fond of the idea of going to war—with anyone. We have enough to do as it is. As long as no one's attacking anyone else, we're all good." At that, she gave a nod and walked away to where the Captains had left their jet gear.

Yuna looked over at the other Captains and asked, "You all feel the same?"

It was the Captain of the Fahrenheit who said, "As much as I didn't see much of the fight, I've seen the Record Spheres from the other Captains, so I think they have the right of it. Knowing they're aware of their own power is actually a benefit—it means they already _know_ the results if they mis-use it. They can't claim 'an accident' if they already know, and from our history lessons with people being given powerful tools or toys, them not knowing the extent of their power is so often the cause of destruction that this changes the playing field." The man then rose with a grin and called out, "Hey, Tidus, how about we set up a game of blitzball out in the ocean to distract ourselves for a bit?"

Tidus had to laugh as his eyes shone. "Sure thing!" he agreed as he rose. "I'll go track down some of the kids and the jet fighters, and we can set up a whole tournament."

The Captain of the Fahrenheit gave him a 'thumbs-up' as the other Captains voiced eager agreement, then faced Wakka and asked, "You game, Guardian?"

Wakka made a dismissing motion with one hand as he gave them an amused look and said, "If ya want a tournament, ya gotta have someone organize it. Maybe we Guardians can play the winners?"

"Sounds good, Wakka! Thanks!" Tidus grinned. He then turned and made his way through the crowd as Yuna sent a look of amused exasperation after him.

"Um...what's blitzball?" Aeris asked, looking confused.

"It's a sport," Rikku replied in amusement. "It's usually played in an arena made of a huge ball of water suspended in the air, or out in the ocean, lakes, or rivers, and mostly involves two teams scoring on goals with a ball called a blitzball. The kids still play it a lot, but the adults have mostly stopped—it used to be everyone's favorite spectator sport."

"So you're going to play a game while a girl's life is on the line?" Ruluf asked with a frown. Aeris still just looked confused.

"It isn't as though we can do anything for her. It's probably not helping her health to have so many worried people hovering over her all the time," Rikku said dismissively, getting up from the table, walking around it to Aeris, grabbing her arm, and leading her towards the shore. "And since you look oh-so-confused, you're going to come watch it with me."

"But—" Aeris began.

"Live a little, be a kid, see what it's all about—then go back and check on Shelke," Rikku replied, leading her away. The younger red haired Turk fell in with them before they were out of sight, her expression exasperated.

The Captains had already risen and begun spreading out through the crowd of Spirans, and Wakka sat down in the seat Tidus had vacated. He was searching around for something to write with, only for a rather amused Hana to hand him three sheets of paper and two sticks of charcoal.

"Ah! Those are the papers and charcoal Genesis and Eden didn't use!" Karru gasped, pointing at them in surprise.

"They are," Hana agreed.

Wakka blinked at the two girls, then grinned his thanks and began making notes on the top sheet about the tournament organization.

"Sports tournaments take a lot of time to complete, though," Ruluf commented with a small sigh.

"Not blitzball," Yuna told him in amusement. When he raised a brow, she elaborated, "A game only takes six minutes, and that only if there was an actual pause at half-time, after two and a half minutes. Otherwise, it takes five minutes. If we get as many as sixteen teams—I think that's the most we'll manage—it'll only take about two hours to decide a winner, and most of that time will go to team shuffling and letting the players rest as winners are decided. It shouldn't take longer when it's impromptu like this, rather than official."

Ruluf blinked, then blinked again. "Oh, Shiva—you're all 'instant gratification' _little kids_!" he gaped in horror.

"Nothing wrong with that," Eden said tiredly from behind the man, and Ruluf jolted and spun to face the blond.

"Hi Eden!" Karru grinned. "You really look tired."

"I am," he agreed. "How do you breathe underwater for five or six minutes?"

Everyone else stared at him in surprise—then Yuna began giggling as Wakka gave him an amused smile. It was the man who said in an amused tone, "Al Bhed can automatically stay underwater for extended times—they've never clarified how long. The rest of us train ourselves, but some have an easier time of it than others. Yuna still can only stay underwater for about two minutes and forty seconds."

"Huh," Eden blinked.

"You're okay with them playing games while Shelke is—" Ruluf asked with a frown.

"I don't know that it's necessarily 'okay', but I think all of us need to release some stress or we'll be no help to her at all. We can't take care of someone else if we don't take care of ourselves first. This is a good way to relieve some stress and learn about our new neighbors at the same time, so I don't see why it matters. They probably went 'instant gratification' in sport because the rest of their lives are pretty damned serious," Eden replied.

"Shall we go down to the shore where Rikku and Aeris are, then?" Yuna asked the blond as she rose. He gave her a faint smile and nod, then the two headed away. Karru made a sudden decision and went to grab Genesis to drag him after them, and Hana took Ruluf's arm to lead him to the shore as well.


	50. 47-Stress Relief?

Stress Relief?

"Let me go! Shelke needs—" Genesis was just yelling as Karru pulled the man along with her and Hana and Ruluf watched in bemusement.

"She _needs_ you to not have a total mental breakdown so you can still be there for her when she _really_ needs you!" Karru retorted hotly. "Now shut up and take some time to watch our blitzball tournament!"

"But Shel—what's blitzball?" Genesis cut himself off to ask in complete confusion. "Hold on, I need to go back to her!"

Karru groaned as Genesis pulled his arm from her hand, but she jumped on him as he was turning and ended up knocking him to the ground at Hana and Ruluf's feet, Karru's arms around his waist as he laid where he was in shock. Thankfully, Hana and Ruluf had come to a halt as soon as Genesis had started turning back to them, so they didn't step on him when he fell.

"Get off me, Karru!" Genesis growled after a stunned moment.

"No!" she replied, pulling herself up to sit on his lower back. "You need to relax so you won't wear yourself out. Even Eden and Aeris were okay with _that_. Now stop complaining. This will probably only take two hours, tops, and you can leave part-way through. And it's not like Shelke is alone, or like you were actually doing anything _useful_ for her, anyway, drained like you were— _are_. Get. Some. Rest. Geez! And men say _women_ are emotional!"

Ruluf snorted as Hana chuckled and told Karru, "They like to think they're better than they are, don't they?" She then looked down to meet Genesis' angry eyes. "I have to commend your loyalty to your sister, but Karru is right to say you should take a break while there isn't anything you can do for her. Relax and watch some blitzball, get something to eat, and go take a nap—preferably in that order. It'll do you a world of good so you'll be able to help her again. Your healing is strong, but you need to recover in order to use it—this will help you be able to do something for her again."

The red haired man opened his mouth, then closed it again as he went limp. "...Fine. Persistent little..." He heaved a small sigh and commented, "You'll have to get off me if you want me to go with you, Karru."

"Great!" the girl grinned, propelling herself up and offering a hand to help him up. More to make her feel good than because he needed the hand, Genesis took it and let her help him up. She then attached herself to his arm again to lead him in the direction of the shore.

"...Karru is rather clingy, isn't she?" Ruluf asked of Hana once the other two had gone on ahead. They had also begun walking again, though slowly, like they were just casually heading in the direction of the shore for no reason in particular.

"I don't know that 'clingy' is the right word," Hana replied, thinking back to everything she knew about the younger girl. "Her parents died when she was about four—she only barely remembers them. Sanni tried to take care of her for awhile, then dumped her with Rikku and Aunt Yuna. She and I grew up like sisters until she was ten, then Sanni decided to try taking care of her again—it worked marginally better only because Karru was mostly self-sufficient. But it also meant Karru and I didn't see each other much after that, because I was training to be a Summoner. Sanni and Karru were never very close because even though Sanni cares, she has trouble showing it the way Karru needs it, and Aunt Yuna is...very restrained. And Rikku is too confused to be much different than another—annoying—sister to Karru and me."

"And Genesis?" Ruluf asked after a pause to think about what Hana was saying.

"I think he treated her so differently from everyone else she knows that she likes him as a good friend, but I also sort of think she has a little crush on him," Hana answered in faint amusement.

"...Well, that complicates things..." Ruluf sighed faintly.

"Does it?" Hana asked curiously. "She's only just discovering—sexuality and boys and the like, and the first really _different_ person she meets is a man who saves her life. I honestly think she'll realize he's worth a whole lot more as a friend rather than a crush, but after how they apparently met, that affection was inevitable, at least temporarily."

"Then it's a good thing he doesn't reciprocate, right?" Ruluf asked in faint amusement. "My experience with girls, especially young ones like her, or even yourself, is that they tend to latch on to their first crush if that person even vaguely responds favorably to the attention. I ended up with a stalker at one point because of that very thing, and others who didn't seem to want to let me go. Sure, I saved them, but in at least half of those instances, I bluntly told them I had only 'saved' them because it was convenient and paid them no more attention. In comparison, there are only three I've saved who have taken it for what it was—Aeris, Emma before she joined the Turks, and one other woman I haven't seen since. For all I know, the last may be dead now."

"Hmm..." Hana murmured, then looked up at him. "What kind of prospects for a partner did those women—all of them—have?"

"...Poor men and criminals," he said in a sad tone. "They didn't have much to look forward to, even if they managed to find a man who would love them, because most of them weren't likely to live more than a hand-full of years longer. Most would have been abused until they died, or gotten some sickness, or taken to drugs. Some may even have been killed just for knowing the wrong person."

"Then, wouldn't it have been reasonable to say _you_ , the only man who saved them and didn't demand anything from them or harm them in exchange, would have been their 'best prospect'?" the sixteen-year-old asked, and Ruluf's eyes widened. "I don't think they particularly intended to become stalkers or attach themselves to you the way they did, but if they were to compare you to their other prospects—what choice would _you_ have made if you were one of the women you saved?"

After a silence, the Turk gave a wry smile and said, "You have a surprisingly good mind, Hana. For your age, that's impressive."

She gave him a small smile. "When Aunt Yuna trained to be a Summoner, they had to learn to accept that they were going to die at the end of their journey. There was no life beyond their Pilgrimage for them. Aunt Yuna is the only Summoner in that era who both finished her Pilgrimage _and_ lived to tell the tale, to have a life beyond that. It took her some time to realize she could do more than pray, to come to terms with the reality that she was still alive and was going to stay that way. Even though there are other Summoners to learn from now, the single best one to learn from is Aunt Yuna, because she's the only one who truly understands human emotion, suffering, and choices. Almost half of what I've learned from her about this—profession, I guess, is more about how to assess when to intervene and what's the best way to do so."

"What do you think about Yuna's history?"

"In what way?"

"Is it just a fact of life to you, or does the world she lived in upset you, or is it something you'd call 'enlightening'? Something else entirely?"

"Thirty-five hundred years of knowledge and experience is a valuable thing to have access to. Personally, I had to learn that Aunt Yuna didn't tell me things for the sake of doing so, she was telling me those things because she hoped to way-lay some of the trials I would end up going through. I had to learn to truly assess her words, then make my decision, prepared for whatever the result of my actions would be.

"But what I think about her past...it's a reminder of why Summoners don't have that same purpose anymore, why they aren't, and won't ever, be used as sacrifices again. I am so thankful I've never had to prepare myself for death to produce a few Sin-free years, basically for a pointless exercise. But it's also because Aunt Yuna had to do so that she had me prepare for death anyway."

"I beg your pardon? Isn't that worse?"

Hana had to smile in faint amusement as she looked up at the older man and gave her head a shake. "No. I wasn't prepared to be a sacrifice. I was prepared, like you were, to be aware that any time I went into battle, I may die. If I chose to save a child by throwing myself in the way of a fiend I couldn't defeat, I would have to be aware of the death I would be causing myself. Or maybe, when I began my Pilgrimage, I might meet something I wouldn't be able to fight, so my Guardians and I would all die. It can't always be avoided. But the one thing I've found is that being aware of it and accepting it might happen has freed me from errors and actions which would reduce my own skills, making death more certain. This way, I'm not looking for death, but I can fight freely and be strong until I meet it, without fearing it when it comes."

After gazing evenly at her for a long time, Ruluf asked, "What's this about a Pilgrimage and Guardians? I sort of thought 'that didn't happen anymore'."

"We still go on a Pilgrimage with six Guardians, just like Yuna and all the Summoners before her did," Hana replied, grinning. It was the first time she was showing more than minimal emotion, and she actually giggled when Ruluf stumbled and nearly fell. "Well, back then, six wasn't the most common number, actually. The difference is that we aren't expecting death at the end of the journey anymore. We go on it because it gives us a chance to see the world, to learn about it, gain experiences of our own in it. Traditionally, we now begin in Besaid and head north to New Zanarkand, which pretty much covers the world. After the Sundering, though, we may not start at Besaid or Kilika, because they've both been destroyed."

"So who are your Guardians? How are they decided?" the Turk asked curiously.

"The Summoner chooses them," Hana said with a little shrug. "Often people we know will take at least some of the places as Guardians, but strangers can, too. It wasn't traditional back in Aunt Yuna's time to have an Al Bhed in the group, but now, it's common practice, since they're very, very useful to have. I'd take Karru as one of my Guardians, but I haven't given much thought to anyone else I'd like to have as one of them. Oh, maybe Koln."

"Who?" Ruluf blinked in surprise.

"He's a jet fighter with the Aeroterra," the sixteen-year-old replied. "Apparently, he's a descendant of someone Aunt Yuna and Rikku worked with, a woman named Paine, and he inherited her fighting skills, so...Well, I met him and he's pretty aloof, but he also cares a lot about the people around him, and he has a soft side if you get to know him."

"Do you know anyone else you'd take with you besides a kid and one skilled warrior?" Ruluf asked in faint amusement.

Hana stuck her tongue out at him and replied, "I'd quite happily take four of your people, a Turk, a SOLDIER, a Wutain, and a Cetra. So there."

"Not a Moto?" Ruluf teased.

"I'd take one of them if I couldn't take one of the first three, but I still want a Cetra. I _don't_ want to be the only effective healer for seven travelers. I have no idea how Aunt Yuna did it, honestly."

"If you take us with you, it won't matter if you have a Cetra with you because of our Materia," Ruluf answered, looking very amused.

"Materia?" she blinked in surprise.

"It means as long as we have a Restore and a Heal Materia, we can both heal injuries and undo status effects and ailments. It isn't weak healing—you've been watching us heal Shelke over and over again. Anyone from our world has access to Materia, and Restore and Heal are very common ones for combat personnel to keep handy. Many of us have Summons and automatic revives, too. Some of us have gone as far as getting Revive Materia for bad situations, even if we aren't using the auto-revive. As such, you don't need a Cetra to have plenty of help healing."

"Ooooh," Hana hummed with interest, then smiled. "I'll ask Aunt Yuna how much longer she wants me to wait, and if I can take some of your people along as Guardians. What better way to give us the chance to form bonds and get to know one another?"

Ruluf had to chuckle. "That assumes we'll have time for that. Though, if it's okay with you, I think we all—Yuna as well—would prefer you took at least one more from your own world _before_ taking a majority of _us_."

"I guess we'll have to see what Aunt Yuna says," the younger woman smiled.

They reached the shore just then, and Hana watched in amusement as the older man stared in shock at the gathering for the impromptu blitzball game. Not only did it look like most of the Spirans had migrated to the shore, along with several Gaians besides Aeris, Eden, Genesis, and the red haired lady Turk who had joined Aeris earlier. Hana was used to seeing these sorts of gatherings, but picking out the players from the spectators was something new to the man with her. She could appreciate how confusing it could be, but she could also see his eyes tracking who was doing what, where, and when—she was sure he'd picked out most of the players in no time.

In addition to the players and spectators, there were areas on the shore and in the water cordoned off with ropes which had probably originated on the downed Shadowterra by the color, eight in the water which were about the size of the blitzball arena's width, and eight smaller ones on the shore. Some of the teams were already wading out into the water with blitzballs provided by the children, choosing 'arenas' to play in for the first round or just showing off some of their water-based moves like flip-kicks which took them clear out of the water before they landed right back in it.

"Could I ask who that red haired Turk with Aeris is?" Hana asked suddenly, seeing the Turk in question pelt a stray blitzball back to the arena it had emerged from.

"Cissnei, our official youngest Turk. Well, I actually think Riona is younger by a few months," Ruluf answered. "But Cissnei apparently hasn't decided to give up guard duty on Aeris, and probably won't until Tseng wakes up and tells her she doesn't have to do it anymore. Admittedly, though—Cissnei could legitimately just really want to keep Aeris safe as a friend, since they've been traveling together for months."

"She would be a skilled blitzball player," Hana smiled.

"Hey, could I go give it a try? Would they mind?" a new voice asked from just behind them, making Hana and Ruluf turn to face a SOLDIER First with black, spiky hair, bright blue eyes, and an infectious grin.

"I don't think they would, but you'd have to ask them," Hana replied with a smile. "And I think you'd need to leave your sword behind."

"Great! I'll let Aeris keep it for me, since she's my girlfriend and all," the young man grinned, slipping past them and jogging over to Aeris and Cissnei as he pulled his sword off. Rikku, who was with them at the time, apparently found something about him amusing, and he just laughed as he handed his sword to the Cetra.

"Who is he?" Hana asked in surprise.

"Zack Fair," Ruluf replied in amusement. "Or, you could call him Puppy, or Mr. Battery. Somehow, I'm not surprised he found his way here and actually wants to play. Nothing keeps him down for long."

"...Mr. Battery?"

"He has so much energy I think he'd destabilize the Farplane by setting foot in it."

Hana first blinked at the older man, who met her gaze with dancing eyes and an emotionless face. She then almost felt like her world was tilting, and was overcome by the desire to laugh, given how the joke-not-joke was equally hilarious and alarming. She also got the distinct impression that someone so happy would have no need or use for the Farplane regardless, and the thought of a mere human destabilizing it really was hilarious. So she laughed, and Ruluf grinned before leading her in Aeris, Cissnei, and Rikku's direction.

FoW

Sanni had just returned to the Aeroterra and made her way to the bridge, asking as she walked in, "How are the repairs going, guys?"

"Mostly done," Genzo replied. "I think the only things we have left are some hull repairs and a few internal stabilizers—we're better off not ending up underwater right now."

"Good, let's keep it that way," Sanni grinned. "Show me what you've got on your sensors."

A larger viewing screen near her activated, showing the results of a radar sweep—which clearly showed the _very large_ outline of something outside their visual range, but also not far from the new island. By the distance ratio of the...whatever it was...to the island, while they were outside visual range, they _were_ within easy sailing range, and an airship would make the trip in less than an hour. Whatever was there, it seemed to be stable, and it was too large for the sensors to register its whole size. To be honest, the only thing she knew of which was so large was a continent.

Blinking as she recalled the Turk saying their world entity _would_ provide for them, she tipped her head to the side and asked, "Do we have any other data on this form?"

"Nothing specific, other than those green-white energy lights congregating there," Genzo told her.

"No changes in water level or water or air currents?" she frowned.

"None which are substantial. The most substantial change was with some of the air currents, but all levels have only marginally adjusted, and whatever that is seems to have placed itself to _avoid_ the primary ocean currents," the man explained as he tossed some small snack food bits into the air and caught them in his mouth.

"Let's head over and get a look at it, then," Sanni said as she made her way to her seat and sat, gaze intent on the window looking out towards the front of the ship. "We're in no rush, so don't strain the ship."

"Got it," he agreed, and shortly after, the ship was moving in the direction of the mass. If it was what she thought it was, she'd have a great time seeing Yuna's expression when she told her they had a new continent—one which hadn't displaced anything of substance.

But that then begged the question of how they'd gotten such a land mass.

Soon after, a shoreline came into view, and more and more land became visible the closer they came to the shore. A beach drifted into the ocean, but at a certain distance from shore, there seemed to be a row of spiked rocks jutting up above the surface in a line which looked like it would surround the continent. There was space between some of the jutting rocks which would let a large ship pass through, but mostly, they seemed to form a perimeter. The shore gave way on land to rolling plains and both dense and sparse forests, but they couldn't see further to know if there were other features yet.

"Holy Hellfire..." Genzo breathed in shock.

"Start by circling the land mass, then we'll do a pass-over or two. Make sure to map the size, shape, dimensions, and features we find," Sanni ordered, gaze sharp.

They began circling the shore of the land mass, heading north by their radar indicators. The sandy beach gave way to a rougher, rockier one, then to low inclines which became more and more vertical as they progressed. The northern end of the land mass was mainly rocky and jagged with only a few flatter areas, and as they progressed down the far coast, the shore gradually reverted to sandy beaches, though those ones weren't as gentle as the ones they had first seen. Jutting rocks stopped when there was no sloping shore, and varied in distance from the shore by how steep the incline of the ocean floor was—nearer to the shore when it was very steep and further away when it was gradual.

They abruptly came to a jagged edge as they were heading south, and found that the land mass was cut in half. Following the edge of the—rather wide—gap led them to what looked like a stable, solid land-bridge linking the northern 'continent' to the southern one across the gap. It looked like the land-bridge had a lower lining of refined mythril to support it, which was rather impressive for the sheer span the bridge covered—a distance of over fifty miles—and the fact that it was apparently supporting the weight of a rather large mountain range.

"What's right below us?" Sanni asked suddenly.

"Water," Genzo snorted.

"Water currents, shipping routes, marine migration paths—any of those below us?" the woman rephrased, lips twitching in amusement.

"We've got the Kush Current (1) here—main path for rainbow fish, and one of the few stable mid-ocean currents sailors relied on to cross or explore this area of the ocean until we started relying on airships for things in this region," her First Mate filled in. He then paused and asked in surprise, "Does that mean this bridge is here to keep the main land mass from interfering with the Kush Current?"

"It looks that way, doesn't it?" Sanni agreed. Several of the bridge crew traded confused and amazed looks. "Let's head for the southern portion of the continent."

They kept going, finding rockier areas of the shore closer to the land-bridge and wide, sandy beaches all along the southern portion of the continent, with only one exception to the point furthest south. At that location was essentially a large, stable slab of rock which was so well-defined that it could easily serve as a ship dock and the base for a port. With it neatly cutting the sandy beaches in half, it was ideally positioned for both commerce and entertainment. Inland, it showed the same signs as the northern portion of the continent had, with plains and forests, though there were no visible mountains from the southern-most shore.

When they found the other half of the cut, they followed it to the land-bridge on that side, then moved south of the bridge to follow the foothills. From there, they passed over the land, finding lakes, rivers, streams—and a salt lake—along with the usual land features. There were also passes through the mountains, some which followed valleys and rivers which could be inhabited and others which simply formed a passageway between the northern and southern continents. When they made the return trip north of the mountains, which had begun seeing dark clouds and snow flurries, they found much the same.

The only real difference between the north and south was in the form of the vegetation—in the north, the plants tended to be more temperate, while in the south, they were tropical. Any existing animals would likely share those traits as well, formed to live in whichever general climate. Over-all, the northern portion of the land was larger and more extensive, while the southern portion was wider near the land-bridge and narrowed as it went south, though it didn't taper off into a point, it was a rounded shore. The space it took up was marginally less than their own continent and islands took up, and it had been placed to avoid the northern and southern currents as well, though those would pass by close to the shore, influencing it.

"Well I'll be," Sanni commented as they headed back to the small island. "Have we been able to figure out why they have salt lakes and why the water level hasn't risen?"

"We released some underwater sonar sensors," one of the other crew members said. "They've had time to report back. Have a look at this," she added, as the small screen attached to Sanni's seat showed an image.

She had to blink at it several times before sitting back and laughing at the absurdity of what Minerva had managed to do for her people. "It's on stilts! The whole fucking land mass is being suspended above the water on stilts!" She went right back to laughing after saying that, shaking her head and suddenly feeling very glad Karru had so forcefully decided to make them allies and friends. She'd have regretted everything she'd ever done in her life if she had never had the chance to see what she was seeing now.

However, despite her amusement at what Minerva had done for the Gaians, Sanni had a peculiar, niggling feeling like they, the Spirans, were losing everything—their homes, their way of life, their skills and beliefs. She was afraid of losing any more, of what they would be left with...would they even be themselves anymore after all the changes? Amusement aside, the thought was persistent in the back of her mind, and she began sub-consciously running through a list of everything that had changed and everything which was still as it had been. The latter was a very short list.

Sanni was still chuckling as they pulled back into position near the small island, but as she was rising, Genzo said, "As amazing as that is, it's also a defensive nightmare."

"True," she agreed. "But somehow, I don't think it'll be such a problem for them, especially not with those giant water-snake-dragons they seem to have several of, and whom they're on good terms with. Anyway, I'm heading back to Omega Rock to see how the little munchkin is doing and to tell them about their new home."

"See you soon," Genzo called after her as she left the bridge.

 **Notes:**

(1) While this ocean current is completely made up, it actually has a precedent in FFX data. Between FFX-2 and FFX -Will-/3, there's a 2.5 (yes, really), which explains about some of the world, the Gods, the beliefs, and so on, from about 1000 years before, at the time of the Machina War and from probably shortly before Sin was created. Tidus' status as a beckoned and this 'Kush' aspect come from that. Kush was the name of a God of food and water, so I figured naming an ocean current which is loaded with edible fish wouldn't be unreasonable.


	51. 48-Sending

Sending

Eden stayed on the shore to watch the first round of the impromptu blitzball tournament, then turned away from it to head back towards the middle of the island. At first, he had no particular destination or purpose in mind, and was just letting his mind drift. It was inevitable that it would drift back to that moment when he'd dissolved the suffering child's soul, and he still felt like that was so _fresh_ in his memory. It had just happened right before they had arrived on this new world, and even the 'time' which had passed hadn't made it more distant or less vivid.

And worse, every single time he thought back to it, he inevitably thought right back to little Nina. That association was devastating in itself—it made him feel like he'd killed Nina himself.

Without being aware of it, he fell to the side, hitting a tree with his shoulder and sliding to the ground on his knees as he tried to work through that pain and the persistent realization that he'd had to send on a child who, even as a spirit, had suffered so much. He'd have hated Fuhito, but Fuhito was good and dead, and wasting his time and energy any further on the man was pointless now. As such, he had a whole lot of feelings, no hatred or anger to turn it into, and no real way to resolve them—there was no one on Gaia who would ever understand what he'd gone through to send that child's soul on.

A hand on his shoulder caused him to start and look up, to see that Yuna had followed him. Apparently, his expression was all she needed to sit down beside him and say quietly, "Sending is never really easy, no matter how often you do it."

Slowly, he blinked, then asked, "Sending?"

"The aspect of Summoning which involves sending on the souls of those who had died—fiends, unsent, beckoned, and the pyreflies which help them form. It's easiest with pyreflies because that's really only dispersing formless energy which has no human essence attached to it, but the others...It's like watching someone you cared about die again," she told him. "I know the look. It happens to _every_ first-time Summoner on their first sending, though I'm a little surprised one of your people has that ability. Tell me what happened to cause you to do it."

With a sigh, Eden shifted to sit with his back to the tree and said, "Just before we were pulled onto the Omega body, I had been taken hostage by a man who'd had a soul attached to him, a soul he was somehow forcing to do his bidding. It wasn't a Summon, just...a child's fragmented, damaged, warped soul. And every time he used it, he damaged and warped it more. By the time Zirconaide killed him and released the soul, it...didn't have the ability to move on, and was so tainted Minerva couldn't have taken it, so I was left in the middle of nowhere with a dark bubble made of a child's suffering soul."

He paused, then shook his head. "I didn't know what to do at first, but I knew I couldn't just leave it, and worse, when I touched it, I had a sort of communication with it...just enough to know it was begging to be freed from its suffering..." He squeezed his eyes closed and went on, "My first thought had been to use up the soul's energy to heal my wound, dissipating it in the process, but I had also associated the soul with a little girl I had known before her father turned her into a very literal monster and another man murdered her. When I thought of Nina, I knew I couldn't do that, so I thought about what I _could_ do...And the result was to purify its essence so Minerva could accept it back."

For a few moments, Yuna was silent, then she said, "It takes a great deal of mental strength to make a decision like the one you made." The blond Turk opened his eyes and turned to look at her again, pain in his gaze. "Do you think the child would have been happy to stay around?"

"The world died soon after, so no—there'd have been nothing there for it, literally," Eden replied with a small, wry snort.

Shaking her head, Yuna replied, "Assume your world didn't end. Would the child have been happy to stay in that world?"

It took Eden a moment to work his mind around forgetting—or ignoring—the President blowing up the Planet, but then he said softly, "I think it was in too much pain for that."

"Do you have a way to judge that?"

"...After being the one to kill many torture subjects who were soulless dolls or mindless killing machines, yes. I don't think the soul I was dealing with was any better off. I killed them only because seeing the state they were in—at first, all I could feel was pity for what they had become. Did I do the right thing by killing them? I honestly don't know, but I also couldn't leave them as they were—their lives were already over, their souls gone. In this case, the body had died, but the child's soul was still there, suffering. It was the only thing I _could_ do right then. It just... _hurts_ , like I just killed Nina again with my own hands..."

Again, there was a long pause, then Yuna shuffled to pull her knees up and wrap her arms around them. "Maybe this will be hard for you to hear, Eden of the Turks, but touching a soul means you intrinsically know something about it. Actually, it would be more appropriate to say touching a soul directly means you intimately know its essence. If touching it has so strongly created an association for you with Nina, there is a very good chance the soul was hers. By her own fate, it is a distinct possibility, and that she only had enough sentience left to ask you to free her because she knew your essence, recognized you as someone she cared about and trusted. That by itself is a sacred thing, something to cherish."

Immediately, Eden's mind jumped to what it would mean for Fuhito to have somehow hijacked her soul from the Gate's space...He could only assume Scar's method of killing people sent their souls to that space as the 'price' for the partial transmutation he used to end their lives. And she wanted him to _cherish_ that?

She looked up at Eden's wide-eyed horror and repeated, " _Cherish_. Do you realize how hard it is for a soul, especially one who has suffered so much, to still recognize and trust someone they once knew?" When his gaze turned confused, she told him, "Unsent are 'safe' because we're fully aware and sentient, and we have a purpose. If our purpose is complete, we move on. Beckoned don't know they're such, and when they find out, they often go insane and will even start killing people before fading out. Those often become fiends, but it doesn't make them any less insane. Once they've become fiends or lost their sanity—or both—they also frequently lose the ability to identify loved ones. They've been known to kill their own spouses and children, not because they 'want to be together with them', but because they just don't know them anymore."

"But Nina..." Eden began, and stopped with a lost expression on his face.

"She suffered. Many people suffer. Her circumstances kept her from moving on, though she apparently wanted to be able to, rather than staying to keep suffering. It's sad to see or hear about such suffering, but that she allowed you to help her—it says a lot about how much she trusted you, even in death. That, in turn, tells me a great deal about you as a person, and I'm honestly surprised you're able to fill the role of a Turk now that I know you're also a sender—a Summoner."

Yuna paused, then met his gaze and said, "You did the right thing, Eden. Not because 'she had to move on', but because you helped her to do exactly what she asked you to do. And you did one better than she asked of you, because you freed her from her suffering—you cleansed her, and in so doing, you _saved her soul_. That's no small thing, and to her, it means the world. If Aeris is right about how the Farplane is changing, you may want to go there for a visit—she may be there for you to see, maybe even speak with. Then she'd be able to thank you herself."

"Thank me for killing her?" Eden asked bitterly, looking down and away.

"For _saving_ her. For relieving her of the suffering she'd experienced. If you sent her on, she should have ended up with Minerva, and therefore, her soul should be here, too. You've given her essence another chance to be reborn and live a good life."

For a couple minutes, Eden just sat as he was, thinking about what she'd said and assessing what he remembered of the little girl he'd once known, the girl whose father had turned her into a chimera made of herself and her pet dog, Alexander. She had been so happy, so full of life...If that darkened spirit had truly been hers, it had indeed suffered greatly since Scar had ended her life as a chimera. If he had just used it up, she would have ceased to exist, and would have no chance to be reborn. Instead, he'd cleansed her, and she'd broken down into Minerva's pyreflies and been absorbed to join the soul energy Minerva used to form new essences for people. In its own right, by allowing Nina to dissipate into Minerva's essence, he'd allowed her to feel a mother's love once more before her sentience vanished into the Lifestream and merged with it.

Maybe Yuna was right to say he'd saved her soul and given her real peace...

His tired, sad gaze turned back to her as he realized something in him had loosened, and the pain wasn't so bad. She gave a small smile, and he said, "I'm not sure I actually count as a Summoner, though. I have a Materia which basically does what I did to Nina to cleanse her so she could move on."

"Did you use the Materia to cleanse her?" Yuna asked curiously. He gave his head a shake, so she said bluntly, "Then you qualify as a Summoner, even if you haven't got a personal Summon yet. As such, since that seems to be a new skill for your people, you're going to need training and to go on a Pilgrimage."

"I've been on a fricken Pilgrimage since I was eleven and burnt my own house down just so I couldn't be tempted to go back," Eden replied with a face. He pushed himself up, then paused and offered a hand to her to help her up.

She took it, then asked, "Why in the world would you have burnt down your own house?"

As he headed for Omega Rock with the woman following him, he told her about his childhood and skills as she listened intently and asked questions only when she needed something specific clarified or explained.

At Omega Rock, while they kept talking, he began searching out his Materia in the huge pile of them which had still been left sitting between some of the tables he'd made. At first, Eden hadn't realized it, but as he touched different Materia, he could distinctly tell which ones were 'his', the ones he'd kept on him or recently found which had been unused before then. The others just somehow felt different, or strange, to him, and it was disturbing to feel it, so he quickly put those down again. Even between them, he could tell the difference between unclaimed Materia Zack had Mastered and claimed Materia Zack had Mastered.

Finally, when he'd sorted through everything into his own Materia, the ones Zack had been Mastering for his Materia fusion experiments, and other random Materia people could claim, he realized he'd basically just told Yuna his whole life's story and sat back to look at her in puzzled surprise.

She gave him an amused look and said, "That's another sign of a Summoner, by the way. It's a kinship which instinctively creates a certain amount of trust between them—no one else shares our experiences so deeply as another Summoner. From people of Spira, I _expect_ their trust because they all know me, and I am quite certain I have met and spoken with every currently living man, woman, and child. That you trusted me so much speaks of only one cause—that you are a Summoner. I would go so far as to say your brother had once been your Summon, even though your method and reason for forming him as an Aeon was different.

"As things stand, I won't ask you to create an Aeon unless one of those you care about chooses to take that step for a reason of their own. All I ask is that, if one of them chooses to become your Summon, you respect and honor that choice. For the time being, you seem to have your own entities which fill the general role of a Summon, so you have no need for an Aeon. If what Hana told me is true, your 'alchemy' is essentially magic the way we know it, and Materia fill the gaps for what you can't, or won't, do yourself, and you seem to have decent abilities across the magical scale as a result. In that, I also won't interfere. No, what _you_ need are the _other_ lessons a Summoner typically would receive from another Summoner."

"Exactly what will you be teaching me if it isn't to create an Aeon or use magic?" Eden asked dryly.

"Can I assume you used 'alchemy' to send Nina?"

"Of course I did. What _else_ was I supposed to have done?"

"Show me a sample of what alchemy looks like."

After a moment of puzzlement, Eden sighed, put his hands together in the familiar clap, then put them on the ground to make it form glass dishes for the piles of Materia to rest in. When the transmutation stopped, he looked up at her to see an intense, thoughtful expression on her face. She then looked up at him with a small nod.

"For the moment, we still have need of sending, and the way you originally did it is a very harsh method, especially for _you_ , as the sender." As the blond frowned and opened his mouth, Yuna held up a hand in a 'wait' motion. "Passage of time. Even if you were unconscious for five hundred years, there should have been _some_ distance between you and the sending to make it less painful. That isn't the case, is it? For you, it still only feels like it's been a couple days since, doesn't it?"

"...Yes," Eden had to agree in a pained tone. That was _exactly_ what it felt like.

"That's because of your method," she told him gently. "The method wasn't 'wrong' by any means, but this sending will now always feel raw to you, and we'll only ever be able to put a small amount of distance between you and the incident. I'll work with you to accomplish that, and to lessen the impact by helping you work through it, but in the meantime, you _need_ a method of sending which won't cause that effect again. That means you need to know the sender's dance and to learn to manipulate the flows in a more gentle way which allows a gradual dispersion so it doesn't bind itself into your memory so strongly."

First, Eden blinked, then he blinked again and tipped his head to the side as his brain effectively broke. "Dance?"

She gave him an amused look and said, "It's a substitute for your clap to 'close the circle' and generate the energy necessary. It takes longer, activates the effect more slowly, and arranges and disperses the energy in a gradual and gentle method which allows it to drift naturally apart and move on to where it _should_ be. It also only works for sending, so your other methods will remain the same. Dispersing souls quickly isn't the way to do things—it's much less damaging to kill a person quickly than to disperse a soul quickly. Souls are strange things in that regard, and a quick dispersion causes the soul to instinctively reach out to the next nearest one and imprint there. That's why it stays so raw, and why we found another method. And yes, there are many men who are Summoners and use this same method for sending."

"Could I just not ever send anyone again?" Eden asked with a blush as he looked away.

Standing, Yuna replied, "I don't know of any Summoner who could refrain from sending on a soul who is suffering, and for everything Minerva can do in that regard, it's still not fool-proof. There _will_ be souls with the strength of will to resist being sent to rest, and someone _will_ need to send them—always. If you were to come across another situation like the one with Nina's soul, could you _really_ not help the soul?"

For a long moment, Eden was quiet, but then he looked up at the older woman with a pained gaze as he realized she was right—he would never be able to just not do anything. When she offered her hand to him, he took it and let her pull him up, then led him to a space a distance away from the area where everyone who was still still working on Shelke was. It was in a clearing in the trees, meaning it was effectively not visible from the common areas where people were, and Eden realized there were the pyreflies which Spirans called 'formless bits of energy' floating around there, making it an ideal training ground.

Thankful for the semblance of privacy the clearing gave, the blond Turk turned all his attention to learning what Yuna was teaching him. Oddly enough, the method came quickly. He supposed, by the ease with which he was learning the skill (and seeing it work on the surrounding Spiran pyreflies), that was just more proof he _was_ actually classed as a Summoner. Of all the things...! Al and Teacher would have been horrified to know he was destined to disperse people's suffering souls...But somehow, what he was now learning was giving him a measure of peace he hadn't felt since his mother had died.

FoW

Rufus had made his way to the shore where the blitzball tournament was taking place, looking for Eden. He'd found Genesis with Karru, Rikku, Aeris, and Cissnei, who had all said they hadn't seen him since the first round ended. Wakka joined them around then and said he'd seen Eden, followed by Yuna, head back towards Omega Rock, so Rufus had headed back in that direction. In the clearing with the tables, he found evidence of Eden's presence in the glass dishes holding the three piles of Materia, but there was no sign of him or Yuna.

Since Reeve was there, he asked the man if he'd seen either of the two, and the older man told him they'd spoken quietly for quite some time, then headed into the forest. After being pointed in the right direction, Rufus went looking for the pair—and it didn't take very long to find them. He stopped at the edge of the clearing, though, and just stared as Yuna instructed Eden in a dance—a dance which was systematically dispersing the floating Spiran pyreflies in the clearing. It was very clear this was some sort of lesson, and that Eden was rather proficient for a beginner.

But what _was_ it?

"It looks like Yuna is teaching him to send," a familiar voice said suddenly from behind him, and he turned to see Angeal.

"I beg your pardon?" Rufus blinked.

"That's the same dance Yuna and Hana were doing when they first came here, and it's having the same effect," Angeal explained. "But what I _don't_ understand is why Yuna is teaching something so precious to one of ours, especially if it's a skill not just anyone can learn."

"It seems Eden is able to learn it just fine," Rufus sneered.

"So I can see," Angeal agreed, eyes on the pair with some confusion. "But there's no way she could have just known he would be someone she could teach it to, and I don't think Eden has a history of sending souls on."

"Don't be so sure o' that, yo," Reno's voice came from behind the two with a snort, making them turn to face him.

"Why do you say that?" Rufus asked with a frown.

"...I'ma just guess a bit, that when they talked earlier, one o' the things they talked 'bout was Eden's brother, yo. 'N' if I think about what I know of his brother, Eden made him into an Aeon, kinda. That'd make him a Summoner, dontcha think?" Reno asked in a dry tone.

" _What_?" both other men gasped in shock, and the noise caused Eden and Yuna to stop what they were doing and turned to look at the three of them in surprise.

Reno lifted his hand in a small wave, then took a few steps forward, past Rufus and Angeal, to stand at the edge of the clearing. "Eden's a Summoner?" he asked Yuna.

"So it seems," she agreed mildly.

"How'd ya figure that out?" he bluntly asked.

"I recognized his expression as that of someone who performed a first sending," Yuna answered. "Apparently someone named Fuhito had been using a child's soul to help him, and Eden was the one to free her soul, but did so the hard way. For a Summoner, the expression is notable. After we talked for awhile, I also realized he had previously turned his brother into an Aeon of a sort. As such, he's been a Summoner for many years, and all of that with no prior training because your people had no idea how to provide it. Now that I know, I'm providing it. Would it be too much to ask that you leave us be until we finish and rejoin you?"

Reno met the blond's golden gaze for a moment, then turned to Rufus and asked, "Was it urgent, Mr. Shinra?"

With an annoyed huff, the older blond said, "I suppose I can wait for awhile if this is a necessary lesson. No one will die if we don't talk until later in the afternoon or evening. Eden?"

"I'd rather the lessons," the blond Turk replied.

Nodding, Rufus told him, "Later, then. Next time, leave word for someone—Reeve, for example—if you're going off by yourself or with someone else and would like to be left alone. At least that way, I won't have to spend time looking for you, just to find out it was a wasted effort."

Yuna looked offended, but Eden looked amused as he said, "I'll try to keep that in mind for next time—and there probably _will_ be a 'next time', because this isn't just one lesson. I learn fast, but I'm trying to get caught up on several years' worth of lessons, too. Even _I_ can't do that in a couple hours."

"Noted," Rufus agreed, then looked at Reno. "Come, then, Gambler. We'll find somewhere else to be for the time being."

"You got it, yo," Reno agreed as Rufus turned around and walked away. Reno gave a wave over his shoulder and followed the older blond.

Angeal told Eden and Yuna, "Good luck," then followed the other two away, just hearing a short discussion behind him with his enhanced hearing.

"Why do you let him treat you like that, Eden—like a tool or a possession?" Yuna asked.

"He's not good at expressing his feelings, Yuna," Eden replied in a dry tone. "He's not being harsh on purpose or because he doesn't care—he was forced to be cold and hard by his father and ended up not being able to just...say 'let me know so I don't worry'. That's what he meant, you know—he was looking for me and couldn't find me, so he worried."

"...I see. I'm not sure I believe that, but if it doesn't bother you, I'll say no more about it. Shall we continue, then?"

"Thank you. And yes, please," Eden agreed.

Angeal still found it mind-boggling that Eden was a Spiran Summoner, but his attention was drawn forward to Rufus and Reno as the blond asked, "What was that about Eden's brother being an Aeon?"

Both Rufus and Angeal listened intently as Reno explained the situation with Al, Ed, and their mother's death, as much of it as he knew.


	52. 49-Fury Unexpected

**A/N:** Sorry if the argument doesn't last long—frankly, it doesn't need to, though. Say just the wrong thing at just the wrong time and you can set someone off with a couple words, and anyone who knows FFX also knows the Al Bhed never really grow up...And both people involved actually have a lot of stress on them right now.

Fury Unexpected

When Sanni returned to the island, she flew over the impromptu blitzball tournament to watch it for a few minutes—there were only two games going on by that point, so it was almost over. Turning her gaze to the shore, she quickly found where Tidus, Wakka, Rikku, Hana, and Karru had gathered with some of the Gaians, so flew over to land by them.

"Where's Yuna?" she asked as she pulled her jet pack off.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Rikku pouted. "Yunie ran off after the first round, and we haven't seen her since."

Blinking in surprise, Sanni noted Hana make a tapping motion on her cheek not far from her ear, so turned to her and asked, "What's the matter, Hana?"

The sixteen-year-old frowned slightly and gave her head a small shake. "Would it make sense if I said it feels like a sending is happening nearby?"

"Yuna?" the Captain asked with a raised brow.

"No," Hana answered, shaking her head. "I _know_ her energy after six years of feeling it every time we trained. This is someone else's."

"But you and Yuna are the only Summoners here, aren't you?" Tidus asked. "The Captains would have reported if any new arrivals had come."

"We would have," Sanni agreed. "Can you tell where it's coming from?"

"Yes, generally," Hana agreed. "Some of us can go look?"

"Wakka and I can stay here if the rest of you want to go look?" Rikku offered with a grin. The final match would be starting soon. "And we'll need Yuna back soon, anyway, for the last match—winners against the Guardians—so you can look for her while you're at it."

Sanni and Hana both gave Rikku amused looks as Karru chirped, "I want to go, too! And Genesis is coming with me!"

"Since when do _you_ get to decide that, Karru?" Genesis asked her dryly, producing several giggles and chuckles from people in hearing range.

She stared at him for a moment, then pouted and said, "But you haven't seen a sending yet, so no matter who's doing it, you'd get to see something new."

The red haired man heaved a tired sigh as Cissnei clapped him on the back and said, "Poor Genesis, being invited to see something new."

"If _you're_ so interested, _you_ go see the sending, Cissnei," Genesis returned with a mild glare.

"She can't," Aeris grinned, arms wrapped around Zack's sword. "Zack is still out there, so I can't just leave, and she has to stay with me until Tseng wakes up."

"Oh, right, Cissnei had been sent with us as your guard..." Genesis muttered as his shoulders sagged in defeat.

"I want to see this oh-so-important 'sending' of yours," Ruluf offered suddenly, and Sanni stared as Hana grinned at him.

"Okay, then it'll be Uncle Tidus, Captain Sanni, Ruluf, and me, and anyone else can come along or not," Hana said, then turned to face the path to Omega Rock. "This way." As she set out, Ruluf followed her right away, and Sanni and Tidus exchanged amused looks, then followed the two of them. Karru dragged Genesis along with her as she followed her 'Aunt' and honorary Uncle.

"It's strange seeing Hana so demonstrative," Sanni commented quietly to Tidus as they walked.

"I know the longer she spent around Yuna, the more she started to mimic her behaviors," Tidus mused. "I guess she's really enjoying Ruluf's company, and I know he got her to laugh whole-heartedly not too long ago. It's nice to see so much joy from her again."

"I agree with that part...But does that mean she has a crush on him?" Sanni blinked.

"Probably not," Tidus answered, gaze amused. "I don't think they know I overheard their discussion—it sounds more like they just respect one another and get along well. I guess like long-lost best friends? I mean, since Karru's like a sister to her, it's not like that dynamic threatens Karru's place, so I don't think she's even thought to give it a name, or that it might need one."

At about that time, they reached the area around Omega Rock and turned to follow a path off to the side of it. Not too long after, they stepped out into a clearing—and stared in shock as they saw the blond Turk called Eden performing the Summoner's dance to send on the pyreflies floating around the clearing. Yuna was sitting on a rock near him, watching with a gentle smile—her 'teacher's smile'—as the energy in the clearing dissipated systematically to Eden's dancing. They all just stood there silently as they stared and the Turk kept dancing until all the pyreflies had dissipated.

At that point, the blond's dance drifted off and he came to a halt as Yuna slipped off the rock and said, "Well done, Eden. Have a look around at your progress."

His eyes opened and he looked around in something like amazed surprise—then annoyance as he saw the group standing there. Yuna followed his gaze—and sighed.

"So what's the problem _now_?" Eden asked, his voice clearly not pleased.

Sanni stepped forward and said, "I was looking for you, Yuna. No one had seen you since the end of the first match, but Hana felt someone who wasn't you sending, so we thought this would be the place to start." She met Yuna's heterochromic eyes with an angry look and a clear question of 'what do you think you're doing?'

She truly felt that, if their world wasn't even their own any more, they _should_ be able to keep _something_ for themselves. In her mind, that something should be Summoning, the one skill it had been obvious the Gaians had known nothing about. Seeing Yuna teach their sacred skill to a Gaian rubbed her the wrong way, making her angry and possessive, and like a child throwing a temper tantrum, she was giving in to those feelings. While she wasn't entirely certain why she felt so proprietary over Summoning rather than something else, some small part of her knew it was because of a combination of how deeply entrenched in their history Summoning was and the fact that it was an obvious skill which hadn't been claimed by the Gaians.

At the expression, Yuna's jaw tightened and she told Sanni in a shockingly harsh tone for her, "While I don't especially mind you looking for me, Sanni, kindly _don't_ judge my actions as a Summoner trainer."

"But a—an _alien_?" Sanni barked back. She didn't notice Eden look away until Yuna turned away from her to move up to the younger man and put an arm around his shoulders.

No one heard what she whispered to him, but when she looked back at Sanni, she was _angry_ and it showed. "Leave, Sanni. I can't deal with you right now, and I _will_ hurt you if you say another word like what you just did."

"Did I hurt your feelings?" Sanni asked, not quite sneering.

Hana gasped and dragged Ruluf away from Sanni as Tidus drew in a sharp breath and did the same to Karru and Genesis. Karru and Hana both looked scared as the two Gaians just looked confused.

"Not mine, Sanni," Yuna said in a very soft voice as a thunder-clap sounded. No one noticed Gaians gathering around the edges of the clearing, watching in shock at what was playing out.

It was unfortunate that Sanni's inherent child-like behaviors, a trait of the Al Bhed, had decided to rear their heads over Yuna's profession. "The _only_ thing of ours we even still _had_ was Summoning, and now _you've_ gone and destroyed that!" she snarled. "They never needed to know it, let alone one of their number who pretty much comes across as the best of everything! He, and they, don't _need_ something of ours, and you're _betraying_ us by teaching it to him, Yuna!"

"Sanni, stop!" Hana cried in alarm.

It was already too late, and the ground cracked and split in a jagged line between Yuna's feet and Sanni's, giving space for something to reach its—large—hands up out of the ground. It gripped the sides of the crack and pulled itself up, revealing a very angry, very powerful-looking giant with earthy skin tones. Sanni's eyes widened in alarm as she tried to step back—only to realize that, as the target of a Summon attack, she _couldn't move_. She was helpless to do anything but let the giant's clasped hands come down on her. An explosion of pain came before everything went black.

FoW

As the giant's hands lifted again, a voice cut through the clearing with a call of three forceful words, "Life Two! Carbuncle!" Light shone around Sanni's body, both close around it and in a larger bubble. When the giant's hands hit the bubble, they were forced to stop, causing the being—obviously an Aeon-type Summon—to snarl and try punching the bubble, with the same result. It began beating on the bubble, shoving it deeper and deeper into the ground with each blow.

"Yuna! Stop!" that voice reached her vaguely through her anger at Sanni's words and behavior.

She was still so angry at the other woman's cruelty and gall, though, so pushed the voice away—until her view was blocked by a young man with golden hair and golden eyes. At that point, she focused on him, knowing this was her most recent student. He needed her attention, and the teacher in her had to respond to that need.

"As much as I appreciate your anger on my behalf, I _don't_ appreciate you _killing_ someone in anger on my behalf," he told her quietly.

First, she blinked. Then she blinked again and processed the words. She recalled the scene which had played out, with her summoning Titan to—attack Sanni! Realization hit her and her eyes widened, her anger and focus broken. Titan dissipated mid-strike and the crack in the ground gradually resealed—most of the way.

"I am so sorry," she said softly to him.

He gave his head a shake and answered, "I'm not the one who needs to hear that."

With a small nod, Yuna stepped past him and ran to the edge of Titan's hole, where the bubble still shone. When she looked into it, she could see a small, aqua-colored creature peering at Sanni, who had managed to sit up and rub her head as she gazed warily at the top of the hole. Rather than any of the reactions Yuna would have expected from her—anger, indignation, or vengeance were at the top of the list—what she saw was fear. Sanni had always been strong, powerful, and confident, but all of that had just crumbled in the face of being attacked—killed—by a friend who had command of more than one dangerous Aeon.

"I am so sorry," she repeated, nearly reduced to tears by the realization of what she'd just done. On more than one level.

"...Go away..." Sanni answered, looking away. "Please just...go away."

A hand on her shoulder caused her to look up at Tidus, who looked so sad right then that she almost _did_ burst into tears. "This is why I keep trying to encourage you to let your feelings out when they come up—so they don't build up like this and explode suddenly," he told her softly. "Usually, it's only fiends who get hurt when this happens, but...This time, it wasn't fiends. And I think you have to talk to your—new student, I guess—while we get Sanni out of here and calmed down." His gaze moved to someone behind her as he asked, "Could you stay and help sort things out?"

"I will do so," an unfamiliar, but somehow familiar, woman's voice agreed.

With a nod, Tidus helped Yuna up, gave her a tight hug, then let the Wutain woman put an arm around her shoulders to lead her away from the hole. They didn't go far, but when they stopped, Yuna found herself facing Hana and Eden, both of whom had wary, sad gazes as they looked at her. Behind her, she vaguely heard Genesis request that Carbuncle let the shield down so they could put space between Sanni and Yuna. She presumed it happened, as silence fell not long after.

Looking back up at her two students, she said quietly, "I have no excuses for what I did just now."

It was Eden who said bluntly, "You can start by explaining exactly why her words set you off. I mean, you obviously felt very strongly about it when you reacted that way."

"Yes, that would be a good place to begin," the Wutain woman agreed, and when Yuna actually focused on her, she realized it was Hikari, Tseng's mother. She had left her son alone? Hikari must have seen the question in her gaze, as she gave a small smile and said, "Ren has woken briefly, so is enough re-energized that I need not be with him at all times. Two of his Turks are sitting with him."

"Tseng's awake?" Eden asked hopefully.

Giving her head a shake, Hikari answered, "He fell back into sleep soon after waking, though the sleep is natural this time, rather than akin to a healing coma. Back to this discussion..."

Hana and Eden both focused on Yuna again, so she sighed and tried to give voice to her thoughts and feelings at the time. "There was more than one reason I felt so strongly about it," she said tentatively. The younger two just waited quietly for her to go on, so she began thinking out loud as a way to articulate what had gone through her head. "At first, it was just a mild anger and insult over her poor treatment of someone she had previously defended. I'd thought that was her reason, something relating directly to it being you, Eden.

"But then she directed my decision to teach you at _me_ , and I—felt like she was attacking my way of life, the skills of a Summoner, everything they mean. I should just pick and choose who to teach Summoning to based on where they came from, not the validity of their ability to learn it, was effectively what she said. Summoning doesn't work like that at its most intrinsic level, and her telling me to...keep the skills purely with Spirans, as though I was doing something wrong by being a teacher of the Summoning arts...It felt like she'd just stuck a dagger in my gut and twisted it. Just like a Summoner capable of sending can't refuse, a Summoner capable of teaching it can't refuse. This path is a harsh one to walk alone without instruction. Even the smallest bit of empathy would dictate a need for someone with the ability to send to be given lessons."

"Eden can already send?" Hana gasped. "I mean, before you taught him the dance?"

"He could, and had, the harsh way," Yuna agreed, sagging a bit as she suddenly felt tired.

"The one that imprints?" the younger girl asked in something like horror. When the older woman nodded, the younger straightened suddenly and said, "I suddenly don't blame you so much for reacting poorly. I still remember what happened to Kirion (1) because we couldn't find him soon enough and give him the training he needed. For Sanni to try to say we shouldn't teach a Summoner just because they're Gaian is just wanton cruelty. Imprinting over and over again is a sure way to an early grave through suicide."

Yuna nodded and agreed, "Even if Sanni wanted something kept just for the Spirans, she never should have allocated Summoning to that position."

"Why does anything even _need_ to be kept 'just for the Spirans'?" Hana asked in a sudden outburst of sadness. "With all the changes happening, we're probably going to end up with something that's just for us, anyway, so why...?"

"May we address the reason for your extreme reaction?" Hikari cut in to ask, her calm quiet causing both Yuna and Hana to focus on her. "Tidus' words would imply that there was a reason for the strength of it. Anger is one thing, Yuna, but what you expressed was effectively blind rage."

With a deep, deep sigh, Yuna said, "I was taught from a very young age to keep my emotions restrained, that they'd show minimally at worst and not at all at best. I had been fated for death, so I didn't need them, they were useless to me, as I was taught. But no matter how much I trained, I could never accomplish that, and sometimes, my emotions would come out. It had given me the view that someone like Tidus, who is free with his emotions, was childish rather than mature and honest with himself. Over these many years I've lived for, I've begun to realize that showing emotion isn't the same as being childish, and restraining them doesn't make a person mature. I've tried several times to be open with my feelings, but my early training keeps...reinforcing itself with very strong emotions and I go back to trying to shut them off."

"Why would you do that?" Eden asked in confusion. "What about the feelings makes you keep trying to shut them off?"

Yuna met his gaze and said sadly, "They scare me. I see things like this happen all the time at the hands of people who have no emotional control, but this is the first time I've physically harmed...killed...a human in my own anger and lack of emotional control."

There was a long silence before Hikari asked gently, "When was the last time you expressed such a strong emotion?"

Silence fell as Yuna lifted her hands to begin counting something on them. After a couple minutes, she stopped and lowered her hands as she said, "About two hundred years." Both Eden and Hana gaped at her in shock as Hikari gave a heart-felt sigh. "I mean, I've had a few incidents of mashing fiends in the interim, but nothing on this level or which completely went out of my control," she hurried to add.

"Yuna, there is a difference between emotional discipline and what you've been doing to yourself. Emotions are intrinsic to sentient races, but so is our ability to learn to manage them— _manage_ , _not shut off_ ," Hikari said, then paused before giving a small nod. "You have now seen the worst of what's offered by keeping your emotions bottled up with no outlet. I believe the best option is for you to learn the same disciplinary techniques the Wutains use to keep their emotions from getting out of hand. I could teach you, or if I am unavailable, Emperor Godo would be the best of those present here at this time. The most important thing you must realize is how you need to accept the fact that you have them— _all of them_ —rather than fearing them. If you stop fearing them, you are less likely to lose control."

Yuna stared up at her in shock for a moment, then turned to look at Hana and Eden, who both gave her nods. "That won't make you think less of me?" she asked. "As your teacher..."

"Summoning," Eden said dryly. "Not the same thing you need lessons in. You're a good teacher and have a lot of knowledge and experience, but I know first-hand that _every_ one has something they need help with, themselves. _I'm_ practically a mass of errors needing correction." She gave him an amused look, so he went on, "I'm actually surprised this seems to be your only problem after you've spent thirty-five hundred years living in a war-torn world. But think of it this way—love and joy are just as powerful of emotions as hate and anger, but you don't fear them, do you? Even though those emotions can also lead to very rash and harmful results?"

After a moment of blinking at him in surprise, Yuna gave her head a small shake and admitted, "I don't fear them. That's a valid point I need to give serious thought to." She then gave a small sigh and added morosely, "Though I'll probably never be able to repair my relationship with Sanni after this, and Ivan will be—upset with me for some time for acting so rashly and summoning him with such rage..."

"Ivan?" Eden asked in confusion.

"That's his human and his fayth name. His Aeon name and form is Titan, the being you saw who did the action of attacking Sanni," Hana explained to him. When he gave a small 'oh' in response, she turned back to Yuna and said, "But before you start any lessons, you should probably head back to the shore so you, Tidus, Wakka, and Rikku can play the winners of the tournament. Maybe use that to help you vent and ground yourself? Then you can start on whatever lessons with Lady Hikari."

"Is that all right with you, Lady Hikari?" Yuna asked of the woman, noting how her crystalline eyes somehow didn't look so odd on her, despite the initial shock of seeing them with such an appearance.

It wasn't a long pause before Hikari offered, "As this was a prior engagement, it would be best to keep it. And Hana is correct to say it may help stabilize you again. You know where to find me when your tournament match has ended." She then looked at Eden and added, "Thank you for your intervention in the situation, Ancient Sentinel. That would not have proceeded well without it."

"Sure," Eden agreed, then Hikari turned and left, followed by Yuna, who found herself flanked by both of her students.

"Hey, Auntie, if you have a new student now, does that mean it would be okay for me to choose Guardians to go on my Pilgrimage with?" Hana asked as they walked.

Yuna didn't respond right away, first guiding them towards the shore via a more direct route than the path by Omega Rock. As they were walking, she said, "Give me some time to think on that. I don't expect to take longer than a few days to decide. Have you given thought to your Guardians?"

"I did. Do you want me to tell you?" the younger woman asked. At Yuna's nod, she said, "Definitely Karru and Koln—especially after what Karru went through here. I also want to take some Gaians with me, a Turk, a SOLDIER, a Wutain, and a Cetra. Ruluf pointed out that you may not want me to have a majority of Gaians in the party, so I may need to improvise. A Moto isn't out of the equation, either."

Eden snorted as Yuna stared, then he suggested, "You should take First Class Commander Sora Kagawa—she'd count as both a SOLDIER and a Wutain. And she's a damned strong woman who will take—and probably survive—blows for you if she thinks that's the best option."

"Really? Point her out to me so I can ask her!" Hana grinned.

The words made Yuna sigh and ask, "Have you even asked Karru and Koln, yet?" Was the girl really getting so far ahead of herself in her excitement?

"Oh, Karru and I decided we were going on my Pilgrimage together about four years ago, and we've just been waiting for you to deem me ready. I don't know about Koln, though," the younger Summoner informed her teacher and ancestor.

Both younger Summoners blinked at Yuna as she held a hand to her head tiredly and said, "The first thing you need to do, then, is ask the Spirans you want to take with you on your Pilgrimage if they'd like to go along. And Ruluf was correct to say I'd prefer you take one more Spiran with you, so you need to think of one more. If I give my agreement, we'll speak with the Gaians about sending some of their number with you, as it would be just cause for them to explore the world of Spira."

If she was assessing Hana's behavior correctly, she was going to go on her Pilgrimage soon, with or without Yuna's support, advice, or approval. It probably was time, regardless, though that would also mean Hana would need her First Aeon. Unless the new semi-spirit entities the Gaians had brought with them would be willing to fill the roll? Either way, rather than having Hana make the attempt without being prepared and without a plan, she thought it best to give her at least _some_ guidance.

"So, if they're right about Minerva providing land for them, can we go explore there, too? As part of the Pilgrimage?" Hana asked curiously.

"Rather than asking if you ' _may_ ' explore any new land masses to appear, by the terms of what a Pilgrimage _is_ , it would be more accurate to say you _must_ explore them, and so too will every new Summoner to come after you," the older woman replied in amusement. "I may even encourage the current titled Summoners to track down their Guardians again and take another Pilgrimage across Spira, for the same reason—a new land warrants our taking the time to see and learn about it."

"Then you'd better also be prepared to go on one," Eden commented to her dryly, and she nodded.

They reached the shore just then, and were quickly able to locate Yuna's three Guardians, who weren't that far from where the winning team—the one Zack had joined—were resting between matches. Tidus was the first to see her and wave her over, and Rikku was hugging her tightly soon after. Wakka rested his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze, letting her know he could forgive her for this slip—and she had no doubt Tidus had told them about it. What would Wakka's reaction have been if Eden hadn't had the sense to protect Sanni from Titan?

Soon after, she was in the water with her Guardians and the last game was underway.

 **Notes:**

The incident in this chapter has been building—hinted at—over a few different chapters. No, it didn't actually come out of thin air. And yes, if someone attacked Yuna's whole purpose in life, part of what kept her as an unsent, I think she WOULD react poorly to it, especially with all the other strain and stress going on. And if anyone DOESN'T think this whole situation is highly stressful to the people living it, you need your head examined. Badly.

(1) You don't have to remember this name. Fact is, Hana knows it because she was involved in the situation, which only happened about 2 years prior and was, by extension, rather traumatic for her as a 14-year-old. It was also traumatic to Yuna, because the circumstances behind it would be very, very rare on Spira, and having someone go insane and commit suicide over sending would be a hard pill to swallow. For someone who is 3,500 years old, 2 years is a blink of an eye, and the incident is still raw to her.


	53. 50-Shocking Arrival

Shocking Arrival

Reeve, Genesis, Rufus, Reno, and several other Gaians were sitting at a table with Sanni by the time a very wet Tidus joined them. No one had spoken much, and Sanni had left her damaged hat on the table in front of her rather than wearing it. At a silent request to Reeve, who had been to one side of the woman, the dark haired man rose and allowed Tidus to take his place.

For a minute, the blond man sat silently, thinking about what he'd seen. Yuna was very protective of and devoted to her art, and he had no doubt she'd had a valid reason for teaching Eden the skill. He also knew—something none of the currently living Spirans did—that if Yuna was pushed too hard on something she felt strongly about, especially when she was in an emotional shut-down mode, that her reaction would be all the stronger. Before now, no human had managed to put her into such a state.

Then again, no human had effectively attacked that which was most precious to her before.

Normally, the result was a powerful attack on a powerful fiend through the use of her Aeons, but this time, she had attacked and technically killed not just someone she knew, but a friend. Al Bhed didn't ever seem to 'mature' in the full sense of the word—they could be old grannies and grandpas and still do things you'd normally expect from a two or five-year-old. Including throwing temper tantrums. The effect was more restrained in those who were half or less, but it was still there, and Sanni's tantrum had effectively triggered one in the half-blooded Yuna.

"None of you have ever seen Yuna in a rage before. You were under the impression that she just didn't get any more angry than 'mildly irritated', right?" Tidus finally asked of the blond woman.

"She never has," Sanni replied, not looking at him.

"In _your_ living memory," he pointed out.

"Are you _defending_ her? I guess it would make sense—you've been her boyfriend for over three thousand years," Sanni said bitterly.

Tidus sighed. "I'm not defending her. What she did to you was wrong. But what _you_ did to _her_ was equally as wrong, Sanni, and the only reason you did it is because you had no idea what the repercussions would be. You thought you could get away with it. You keep forgetting that she's got Al Bhed blood—more than enough of it for her to feel emotions just as strongly as _you_ do. And Hana _knew_ you were digging your own grave, which means she's seen Yuna very angry before. The only difference is that Yuna probably took it out on a fiend that time, not a human."

"So _I'm_ at fault?" the woman asked with a glare as she finally looked up at him to meet his gaze.

"She _warned_ you to leave before she hurt you. Rather than heed her, you pressed on with your tantrum," the younger man informed her bluntly. Sanni's eyes widened, so he went on, "I'm not justifying what she did—it went too far. I'm telling you your behavior was just as bad, and in some ways, it was _worse_. Maybe that's because we've never had a reason to talk with you about our behaviors and why we have them, or because we've been letting people get away with too much lately, but it doesn't change the fact that you _deliberately_ pushed her. And unlike you, Yuna isn't free with her emotions, she keeps them bottled up until they explode. I've been able to waylay that a few times in the past, but I can't dictate when she's going to blow her lid."

"Summoning was _ours_. She shouldn't have been teaching it to a Gaian," Sanni pouted, still feeling insistent on that.

The words made Tidus sigh. "Even though the Gaian she's teaching is the reason you're alive right now?"

"You don't understand..." she sighed in reply.

Tidus abruptly stood. "Sanni, I know you attacked the very heart of her _entire life_. She has a reason for teaching him, and that was no accident or whim. Summoners _do not_ refuse to teach someone due to heritage, and that's what you just told her she should do, not for any particular reason, but just because _you_ got possessive of a skill you don't even _have_. And you're underestimating how much her own actions hurt her on top of that—she never _wanted_ to hurt you. If you're going to be _this_ childish even after having time to calm down, there's no sense in talking any more with you. No, the blame isn't just Yuna's, so don't try to excuse your own behavior that way."

He then looked up at the others at the table, about to give a farewell and leave, but Reno said, "She told us why she's teachin' him, yo."

"She did?" Tidus blinked.

"Eden already did a sendin'—what she called 'the hard way'—'n' even sorta had an Aeon," the red haired Turk replied, and Tidus' eyes went huge. "She had ta teach 'im a better way to do it, hence the lessons, yo."

"What 'hard way'?" Sanni asked in confusion.

"He's got an imprint of a sending tied to him, and it's never really going to be anything but raw and painful to him," Tidus breathed. "It was only two years ago that the Summoners found one of their number who had done that so many times he wasn't sane anymore, and killed himself. They didn't find him soon enough. As soon as she realized he'd sent, and done it that way, she could _never_ have left him—Summoners can't just _refuse_ to send souls on if they find them. He _needed_ to know how not to imprint, which meant learning the skills of a Summoner!"

The others at the table traded looks, but Genesis leaned forward and asked, "Can I assume that means there's more than one way to achieve the same result?"

"In a way," Tidus sighed softly. "I only know this because I've spent so much time with Yuna. Casting spells is done very abruptly, and the requirements to cast also apply to sending—sending itself is also a spell. It can be done abruptly, but that jolts the soul and it reaches out and effectively slaps the soul of the sender, leaving behind a raw memory of the sending. Sending isn't easy, mentally or emotionally, and keeping it raw means it never goes away. That's why Summoners learned another method of 'closing the circle' slowly, so the soul didn't get jolted as it dissipated, which then allows the memory to act like any other and gradually become less painful over time. Their dance is that gradual method. There are other aspects too, but that's the major point here."

Genesis stared at him for a moment, his gaze turning thoughtful as he did, until he finally said, "Yuna's guilty over that other Summoner's death because they didn't find him soon enough to give him the training, so he kept doing it the only way he knew how. She immediately realized the same thing would happen to Eden without the lessons, and couldn't put another human through that, for any reason. When Sanni had her little tantrum, she called up raw, painful memories for Yuna as well as insulting her. Frankly, if she's been alive for thirty-five hundred years, she's got the right to teach whoever she damned well pleases, and no one has the right to tell her otherwise. I think we'll need to talk with Eden, too, because he hasn't mentioned to _anyone_ that such a thing happened. I can only guess it was when Fuhito had him."

"In our defense, it isn't as though any of us had time to sit down with him and find out the details of his captivity," Rufus pointed out.

"I can shed some light on that, though I don't know the result because I left before he'd done anything," a new voice put in from beside where Reeve stood near the table. Everyone looked over at them to see Felicia standing beside the older man.

"What happened, then?" Rufus asked her.

"Fuhito had us both locked in a room where he planned to try to unite the shards of Zirconaide," she said. "He wanted Eden to give him an array which would do the job quickly and easily, and that hole in his leg was the result of Fuhito using a shadowed soul to attack and torture Eden into cooperating. Rather than giving Fuhito what he wanted, Eden gave him half of a complete array, but a novice like Fuhito would never recognize it for what it was. As such, Eden was able to complete the array, merging me with Zirconaide rather than Fuhito's intent, and my new powers let me attack Fuhito without harming the attached soul. To me, the soul felt like a tortured child's, and just wanted rest and peace, but there was some sort of glitch in the soul's make-up which prevented me from sending it back to Minerva. I had other things to do which couldn't be put off, so I had to leave the soul with Eden. That would be the soul he—sent."

Pain crossed Tidus' gaze as Sanni suddenly looked ill, but it was the man who said, "This just gets better and better. Yuna's reaction is making a lot more sense now, even though she still shouldn't have reacted so violently. She's a bleeding heart—if I assume Eden had told her about the sending, she was feeling for the child as much as for Eden."

"I was feeling agony that the child was a little girl whose soul he recognized as someone who had been precious to him," Yuna's voice came softly from a distance away. Everyone jumped, then turned to face her, seeing the sorrow in her gaze. There was quite a group with her, including Wakka, Karru, Aeris, Zack, and others. "For Eden, it's as though he killed Nina with his own hands, and that feeling is never going to be less raw. I'll train him to make it as distant as it can be made, but he was dealt the _worst_ possible hand he could have been given for a first sending, and the one saving grace is that he had the courage to _touch_ her soul, and she recognized him enough to beg his help. She still knew him and trusted him, even in that state."

She paused, then shook her head. "That was painful to hear by itself, without taking into account his brother or everything else he suffered before the Turks found him. Then there was his experience with killing those who had suffered extreme torture. He couldn't be left to his own devices if he expected to stay sane. Gaians currently can't give him the training he needs because they don't have such a skill—perhaps normally, that was fine. Eden is the exception, and can't go without it." Her gaze met Sanni's as she said, "Summoners can't afford to differentiate unless we want to see someone suffer. From someone like Seymour, or even Valan (1), I would expect that, but most Summoners inherently can't stand to see suffering. It hurts too much. And I _am_ sorry I reacted so violently, Sanni, whether you wish to believe or accept that or not."

The blond woman looked away, but didn't say anything, so Tidus asked, "I thought you were going to see Lady Hikari?"

"I had to pass through here on my way," Yuna agreed, turning to head in the direction she needed to.

"Where _is_ Eden, by the way?" Genesis asked suddenly.

"Still at the shore," she replied as she went.

The group began dispersing around the clearing, Aeris and Zack heading over to where Shelke, Selvin, and Kariya were while the others found places to sit or tasks to do. Wakka disappeared to a place no one knew, and Karru made her way to Genesis' side, her gaze sad. Genesis stayed where he was, and Tidus left the seat he'd been standing by so Reeve could re-take it.

FoW

Rikku and Hana had stayed at the shore with some of the others, but Eden had wandered away on his own. Eventually, he found his way to another section of beach he hadn't been on yet, and from there, wandered into the forest. Not long after, he came to a rock—and saw Wakka sitting there, holding something in his hand as he stared at it sadly. The older man looked up at him for a moment, then motioned with his head for the younger blond to join him. Eden sat beside the man, on a section of the rock which jutted out a little below Wakka's chosen seat.

"I once gave this pendant to my wife as a gift," Wakka said after a silence, holding his hand down near Eden so the younger man could look at it. The stone seemed to be black opal in a shape like a cat's head, the fixture white-gold. "She was murdered trying to protect our son. I watched 'em both die, burning to death in front of my eyes." After another pause, he sighed and said, "The fiend that created the tidal wave—she was at its core. I know, 'cause this was there, it literally came out of the core your fellow Chaos had to wipe out. She'd been so powerful that she pulled to her every mother and child who died between then and now to form her fiend body. Lulu hadn't been like that in life, but...death can do strange things to people, ya?"

"...Do you think she broke at the end and planned to—do what she did?" Eden asked quietly.

It took Wakka a minute of thought before he shook his head and answered, "No. I think her mind wanted to move on, but her mother's love and hate kept her here. The result wasn't really her choice then. That it took her thirty-five hundred years to attack anyone is telling. She didn't want to, and it was your Minerva's landing that spurred her to action. I think...I think she hoped someone would finally let her rest. Let them _all_ rest."

"Was your son there, too?"

"Dunno. He mighta been, or he mighta been lucky enough to move on. I don't plan to try to figure that out—it'd be useless and pointless, 'cause I have no way to find out, ya? And either way, now they're all at rest."

A long silence fell as Eden began playing with the hem of his shirtsleeve, not even sure why Wakka had shared that with him. It was something so personal and really none of his business—it would have made more sense for him to share it with Rikku, Yuna, or Tidus. He was beginning to wonder if Spira's awareness liked seeing people suffer, though, because those fiends didn't seem like something a caring entity would do to his or her own people.

After several minutes, Wakka cut into Eden's musings with, "Nina is to you what Lulu is to me." Eden's eyes widened and turned to him in shock. "Yuna told us a bit about what made her take you as a student. That raw wound that never really gets easier to bear—what you've got imprinted in your memory is what I've had imprinted in mine for thirty-five hundred years. It's what keeps me here. That kinda suffering should never happen. I've forgiven Yuna for her fit of rage now that I know what pain she was carrying—yours, her own, Nina's. And maybe now that she's done it, she'll learn how to live with her feelings instead of turning them off."

Looking down, Eden sighed and said, "I didn't know for sure it was Nina's until Yuna told me bluntly that the association I had made between the soul and Nina meant it was hers. But...I'd have thought that was impossible. She shouldn't have even _been_ there for someone to have pulled, even if Minerva had already taken her..."

"Minerva hadn't?" Wakka asked. "I thought she was all for helping people move on?"

"She was— _is_ ," Eden answered. "Genesis mentioned it...that they had someone with them who was from another world, who had been given the knowledge of their language to get along on Gaia. _I'm_ the person he meant. Nina was from my birth world—so how did her soul get _here_? I mean, to Gaia. She died _years_ ago on my world..."

After blinking in surprise, Wakka asked, "How did _you_ get to Gaia?"

"To restore my brother to life, I had to give up mine on my own world. Rather than my life simply ending, the—judge, I guess—of the price for the requested action sent me to Gaia. I don't remember what happened in that space, but I remember the space from previous visits and the harsh reality that an alchemist can designate someone other than themselves to pay the price for the transmutation. Her father had transmuted her and her pet dog into a single being, a monster we call a chimera, and—all of a day or two later, a man who had been killing alchemists killed her. His method used alchemy, but stopped part-way, meaning it still had a price, but I don't think anyone ever knew what the price _was_."

"...What do you think the price was, then?" the older man asked. He seemed thoughtful.

"...I'd guess that her soul was sent to the space where the judge was as the price, and it was just floating around there, waiting to be claimed, or re-claimed—or something—like my brother's body had been."

"Did that Fuhito guy have a way to reach that space?"

"The same way as any other alchemist—using a free-hand array for human transmutation in some form. At least, that's the most notable."

"Could he do that?"

"Yes, though at what point in time, I'm not sure. We have a gap of some weeks between his not having the soul and his having it. By the time I tangibly had to do something about the soul, we'd still only just known he had some kind of 'shadow' protecting him, but not what it was. I had no forewarning of what I'd be dealing with."

Wakka was silent for a minute before saying, "So far, that sounds logical. How do you think he could have taken it out?"

"...We won't ever know that for sure, but I'd have to say it was probably an accidental side-effect of him getting a rebound for whatever he tried to do. It would be the most logical explanation for someone who wouldn't have known about the Alchemist's Gate or the judge, or any floating souls, for that matter."

"So to you, it feels like you killed her, and that memory won't leave you. In the meantime, the bastard who did it is good and dead, so you haven't got an outlet. That's when Yuna found you, ya?"

"Yeah..."

"Like I said, Lulu wasn't that sort of person. Blunt, cold even, melancholy sometimes. Tough as nails, confident. Loving to me and our son. Protective of people she cared about. Our pyreflies usually couldn't have bound to that, unless it was to create an unsent. Since that didn't happen, the agony she died in, that raw emotion, is probably what the pyreflies bound to, not her actual soul. She didn't want to hurt the same people she cared about, so her soul put to sleep her emotions and the emotions of every other mother and child she attracted."

Wakka fell silent for a moment, then went on. "It sounds like that's what Nina did, in a way, and it takes someone really strong to overpower the will of the pyreflies when they try to create a fiend. That guy, I'm glad he's dead and gone so he can't make another soul suffer like that. Knowing something about your past—you deserve to get what peace Yuna can give you, because that memory sure won't be giving it to you. There's a chance you'll even become an unsent one day because of it."

"I can't imagine that, though," Eden said with a tired, wry smile. "I just...can't."

Chuckling, the older man answered, "I never imagined it, either. I always thought I'd just happily move on, never finding something that would tie me to this world so strongly. As it turned out, I found the one thing that could keep me here, and died in the middle of it, so here I am. And I'll probably still stay for some time yet."

"Why would you do that to yourself?" the blond asked tentatively, looking up at the man thoughtfully. "It'd be a lot less painful to move on."

"You ever believe in something so strongly you'd sacrifice everything to see it through?" Wakka asked in reply. Eden's eyes widened, immediately jumping back to his mother and brother, everything he _had_ sacrificed for them and _would have_ sacrificed for them, but he had no chance to answer as they heard a shuttle nearby.

Rising, both men headed for the sound, finding a shuttle from the Farterra as it landed on the shore. Wakka led the way to the shuttle's side door, and it opened as they were approaching. A man in Farterra colors called, "Wakka, you won't believe what the Farplane Gate just did!"

"What did it do?" Wakka asked in surprise.

Before the man could answer, another man stepped up behind him, asking, "Wakka?" as he did.

Wakka's jaw dropped as he gasped, "Auron? _How_?"

Eden peered at the man behind the Farterra crewman, seeing a slender, strong man with a katana at his waist. He had dark hair, rugged features, small shades partially covering his eyes, black clothes, and something like a Wutain or Xingese warrior's robe in red over his pants and shirt. One side of the robe hung off his shoulder, leaving a sleeve dangling and empty. There was nothing especially impressive about him, but he had a silent strength Eden could feel, even from the distance he was at.

The crewman stepped aside and Auron began to descend the short gangplank to the sandy shore, saying as he did, "I'm not clear on the details, but I encountered a blond woman with a two-year-old, dark haired boy. The boy asked if I would do a favor for Yuna and Tidus' descendant and become her Aeon for her Pilgrimage—a young woman named Hana?"

"Ya, she's almost ready to go," Wakka blinked, approaching the other man. "But can unsent do that?"

"Apparently even unsent can become fayth," Auron replied. "When I gave agreement to that plan, I found myself being spat out in an unfamiliar place. That was about five hours ago. Since then, I've gotten a crash course in all the things I've missed. But it's good to see some familiar faces. And sad. I never thought _you_ would be one to stay."

Wakka clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. "Shit happens, ya?" He then paused to turn and look at Eden. "That boy's called Eden—were you told about the people who crash-landed here from another world?"

"I was," Auron agreed. "By his uniform, I would guess he's one of the ones known as 'Turks'?"

"Ya," the younger-looking man agreed. "He's also Yuna's student now. We were just talking about his first sending when you turned up." Wakka then looked at Eden and said, "This is Auron, one of Yuna's Guardians back thirty-five hundred years ago. He was unsent even then. Apparently he's been allowed to return to become Hana's First Aeon—she's told you how Aeons are formed, ya?"

"She did. That gives me chills, but I can—accept it if it's really the person's willing choice," Eden offered tentatively. "Yuna also told me she wouldn't make me take an Aeon, but that if someone offered to be such for me, I had better honor and respect their choice. 'Choice' seems to be the most prominent aspect of the process, so...It's a little easier to swallow, and even that's hard after Nina..."

"She wasn't given a choice," Wakka nodded. "I know it's hard for you. But it's almost impossible to form an Aeon without the other person's agreement because it _does_ mean they're sacrificing themselves to become the Aeon who will protect the Summoner. And in this case, Auron's already dead, so he's got no physical body in the first place—it's no pain to him to do it if he's willing."

"Who's Nina?" Auron asked after watching Eden give a small nod.

"I'll tell you later—Eden sent her the hard way and he's already had to relive it two or three times today," Wakka said, and Auron gave a small nod of agreement, eyes wide as he eyed the blond thoughtfully. "In the meantime, let's go introduce you around to everyone. By the way, do you know a girl called Chuami?" Wakka threw an arm around Auron's shoulders to lead him in the direction of Omega Rock as he asked the last, then laughed as Auron shook off his arm.

"The name isn't familiar, no," the man replied. They talked about a variety of general things as they walked, Eden a few steps behind them.

When they arrived at Omega Rock, Rikku was the first to see them, squealing like a little girl as she launched herself at Auron, hugging him as she cried, "Aurie, you're back! Yay!" Tidus also greeted him happily with a hug, and the introductions began, creating quite a stir in the gathered Spirans.

 **Notes:**

(1) Valan is a random name I assigned to Null's creator (Null was from 800 years ago in Spira's timeline). You don't have to remember it.


	54. 51-Choosing Aeon

Choosing Aeon

Auron had found a place to sit where he was mostly out of the way, finding it rather annoying how people kept staring at him. In that regard, he preferred the company of the Gaians, to whom he was a non-entity rather than a hero, over the company of Spirans. And he still hadn't met Hana or Yuna. Rikku, Wakka, and Tidus agreed to seek them out so he could meet them, and he found himself curious about things like the shelter not far from where he was where a—boy was trying to heal a young girl from some sort of illness. Until people's interest in him died down a bit, though, he didn't think he'd get to explore, so settled for finding some semblance of separation from them.

A man in a Turk's uniform sat down beside him, looking very tired. The man had been with the very young girl who was ill, his orange hair and sunglasses making his identity very obvious. Since the red haired man in the red leather coat was with the girl then, he thought it was likely this man was now taking a break. Despite that, something felt oddly familiar about him in a way he couldn't place.

"Did you want something, or are you just resting?" Auron asked him dryly.

The man's shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Mostly resting. I wonder why Minerva wanted to send a spirit back to the living world..."

"I heard about Eden's sending," Auron offered. "I was a Guardian to two Summoners. I know what the skill can do. That blond woman—Minerva—is motherly and doesn't want to see her children suffer, and Eden's suffered a great deal. I think all of you would suffer by seeing an Aeon created because the whole idea is completely foreign to you. Having me, as an unsent—already a spirit—become the Aeon will ease the blow for all of you, and especially for Eden with his first sending being so raw."

For a minute, the man was silent, but then he admitted, "That has potential. Why did you agree to become an Aeon for a stranger?"

"She has to prove herself to me before I'll become such for her," he said. "But that she's Yuna and Tidus' descendant...it's fitting that it's for one of their bloodline. I'd been tied to both of them for decades, even before Yuna's Pilgrimage, and those feelings were strong enough to keep me here as an unsent for quite a long time. It was only when Sin dissipated and the fayth which had been being kept began to vanish—and Tidus with them—that I moved on."

The orange haired man gave a derisive snort and commented, "Your world is majorly messed up, you know that?"

"Says the people who are here because their world was destroyed by a single man."

"Point taken."

They sat in companionable silence for some time, until a sudden happy, tearful shout of, "Shelke!" made the orange haired man jump, then rise and run back over to where the ill girl was. As they were only just in Auron's view, he could see that the girl appeared to be awake and aware.

His thoughts were interrupted as a familiar voice asked, "Auron?" Looking for the speaker, he found Yuna standing a few feet away. She then smiled and moved up to him to give him a quick hug as she said, "It _is_ you!"

"How have you been, Yuna?" he asked her with a faint smile when she let him go and sat beside him.

"I—had a fit of temper earlier and did some serious damage, but otherwise, I've been fine. Wakka said you were here to be Hana's First Aeon?" Yuna asked.

"I am," he agreed.

She nodded, as he'd expected she would. "If she hasn't chosen or asked anyone, that shouldn't be an issue. You're going to test her, though, aren't you?"

"I am," he agreed. Yuna didn't look surprised. "I need to know she's more than just a pawn."

"We don't train Summoners that way anymore. Does that mean you don't want her Guardians to help in her trial with you?"

"I'd prefer they didn't. My point is less about her combat strength and more about her strength of will and conviction. I'm here to _be_ her 'combat strength'."

For a minute, Yuna was silent, but she met his gaze evenly as she asked, "Would I have been able to succeed at your test when I first started out?"

"Probably not. But then, you were taught a different way than you claim you taught her. That should make a difference," Auron shrugged slightly. "Of course, it would help if I could meet her."

With a giggle, Yuna answered, "You will soon. Thank you for doing this. I wasn't looking forward to having Eden watch a living human become a fayth, and an Aeon, but he still needs to know the process, just in case he needs it one day."

"Heard about that, too," Auron agreed. "That was probably why I was sent back here to do the task—to lessen the blow for people who aren't familiar with or used to that kind of sacrifice."

The woman hummed thoughtfully, then gave a nod, her eyes scanning the clearing curiously before focusing on Shelke. "It looks like they finally found the way to stabilize her. Kariya and Genesis must be relieved."

"Who?"

"Her father and older brother—the orange haired Turk and red haired SOLDIER."

"Ah. Have you noticed—Kariya's—apparent oddity?"

"He doesn't quite register as human, if that's what you mean. He's most like a young man named Tseng, or Ren as his mother calls him, who is apparently half-Summon and half-human. But he's different from that as well, and I just can't seem to put my finger on it, and there's some sort of resonance which is similar to an Aeon's as well."

"But you haven't asked?"

"Even if he has some sort of story to tell, he operates on the terms of any other skilled human, so I didn't think it all that relevant. I was far more worried about Eden."

Auron fell silent then, thinking about her words. Was it okay to just not know? These strangers were strong, a fact he could tell just by looking at them. While Summoners and Guardians may be able to take them on equally, most of the Spirans couldn't, and knowing their quirks was much more likely to keep things in check if the worst happened. Seeing so many new faces was disorienting at the best of times, and he wasn't inclined to get to know many people. But someone with a sense as strange as Kariya's would have been someone he'd have _wanted_ to know about so he'd know what he was up against.

Then again, if it was somehow possible for Gaians to come out as half human and half Summon, that indicated their Summons were a very different sort from Aeons.

"Aunt Yuna!" a new voice called, and both he and Yuna looked up to see a golden-brown haired, blue eyed sixteen-year-old woman approach them with a younger girl—obviously a partial Al Bhed—to one side of her and a young man of about twenty with silvery-gray hair to the other. The latter dressed similarly to what he'd seen members of the Farterra's crew and 'jet fighters' wearing, but in primarily green with yellow highlights. The two young women and the young man were approaching them quickly, followed by Wakka, Rikku, Eden, and several other Gaians and Spirans whose names he didn't know. Tidus ran up to join them as the group gathered around him and Yuna.

"Hana, have you given any thought to your First Aeon?" Yuna asked her bluntly.

Auron watched the younger woman with golden-brown hair blink, then say, "My parents both offered, but I'm actually worried about asking one and leaving the other alone. There was also Malin who offered, but I'm not sure we're close enough for him to do that. Karru is out of the picture since she's already allocated as one of my Guardians."

"When did _that_ happen?" an annoyed woman's voice cut through the crowd, causing people to step aside, letting an Al Bhed woman in a Captain's uniform—probably for the Aeroterra by the colors—through.

"Four years ago, Captain Sanni," Hana replied to the woman with a tight voice.

"And I haven't changed my mind in that whole four years, Aunt Sanni!" the half-Al Bhed girl to Hana's side added defensively, reaching out to grab Hana's arm.

"You're going to take a _child_ as one of your Guardians, Hana?" Sanni asked sharply in reply. It didn't escape Auron's attention how the woman was ignoring Yuna.

"Honestly, _must_ we go through this process _again_?" a new voice cut in tiredly, and everyone's gazes focused on the large, blue cat with a red mane and burning tail tip who made his way to Karru's side, placing himself between the girl and Sanni. "Captain Sanni, if she has had her mind and heart focused on this for _four_ years, it obviously means a great deal to her—children that age do not have the attention spans to maintain such a decision otherwise. Rather than attempt to prevent her from doing it, you should be _preparing her_ for what will be expected of her on the Pilgrimage." Sanni's fists clenched as she glared, but the large cat went on evenly, "Unless you would prefer another attempt on your life for your sudden childishness, Captain?"

Auron sent Yuna a confused look, but she just looked sad and grim as she gave her head a small shake. He quickly realized that had been what she'd meant when she'd said she'd lost her emotional control.

After a long moment of silence, Sanni sneered, spun on her heel, spat out, "Fine, do whatever you want," and walked away.

Karru's face fell, but she turned back to Hana and gave a nod. "I'm going. Even if Aunt Sanni acts like that about it."

The cat sighed at the words, then made his way to Auron and Yuna to sit at her feet and meet her gaze. "Tidus mentioned that Al Bhed never quite leave a state of childhood. By her behavior—if I compare it to every child I have ever known—she feels she is losing everything she cherished and is hurting from the loss. She has not yet seen what else may be gained, regardless of the loss."

"Thank you for intervening, though—Danato, yes?" Yuna asked of the cat. He inclined his head, so she looked up at Karru. "And Karru, even if Sanni won't help us, we'll make sure you're prepared to go on the Pilgrimage. The _last_ thing I want is to see any of you harmed because you weren't ready for what you were planning to do."

"Thanks, Aunt Yuna," Karru replied with a small smile.

"So, you don't have an Aeon arranged yet, even though you have open offers, is what you were saying before, Hana?" Yuna asked of the younger woman.

"That about sums it up," Hana agreed. "I know I'll have to pick one before I leave, but...it'll be a hard choice."

With a nod, Yuna motioned in Auron's direction and said, "This is Auron, one of my former Guardians. We had thought he had left this world once his promise which kept him here as an unsent had been fulfilled, but apparently both world sentiences have asked him to return to this world to become your First Aeon, rather than having you choose a living human. If you would like, Auron will have a test for you, and if you pass his test, he'll become your First Aeon. The process is the same as for a living human, barring the need for the human's death."

Hana's eyes widened in shock as surprised murmurs spread across the gathered group, but when her eyes met Auron's, the hero worship he had feared wasn't there. She seemed confused, surprised, and off-balance, but otherwise didn't seem to have feelings beyond those. She showed a trait he already liked by asking shrewdly and somewhat uncertainly, "Why would you choose to do this for me, Auron—for a stranger?"

He lifted his shoulders in a shrug of a sort, then told her bluntly, "My life has been bound to Yuna's and Tidus' families, their bloodlines, for a very long time, Hana. Even before them, it was bound to their fathers. I've never forgotten or cheapened my experiences and friendships with them, or the promises I made to them—all of them. If I have an opportunity to help another worthy member of their bloodlines, I feel this a fitting way to carry on a life I otherwise wouldn't have had."

She peered at him again for a silent minute, then gave a slow nod—and surprised him again. "As much as I respect your place with Aunt Yuna and Uncle Tidus, and their fathers before them, I don't want _them_ to be the reason you're helping me. I want you to help me because of who _I_ am."

Yes, he was liking this young woman more and more. With a faint smile, he said, "That's the reason I want to test you, first. I also want to know _you_ are worthy of having my support. I won't be bound to Yuna or Tidus this time—my existence will be tied to _you_ , and once it's done, changing that will be very, very difficult. _Are_ you someone I can remain bound to for the rest of your life? That's what I need to know before I give my final agreement to become your Aeon."

That time, Hana gave him a small smile and a more certain nod. "What kind of test is it, then, and by what terms? Can I have my Guardians or not?"

"Not," Auron said bluntly. "Even if I wasn't slated to be your First Aeon, I would insist that you accept and accomplish—or not—my test entirely on your own power. As your First Aeon, traditionally you would face the Aeon alone regardless. As for the type of test—it will largely be a test of the mind. You don't need to prepare anything for it, but we need to move from this area to one more appropriate, and I first need time to arrange a few things."

"You need to arrange a few things?" she blinked in surprise.

He gave her a faintly amused look. "I can hardly test your mind without some things in place to test you."

Recognition came to her gaze then and she nodded, then looked at Yuna. "Does this mean you've decided I'm going, and soon, Aunt Yuna?"

"Not in particular, but you couldn't have set out without your First Aeon regardless. This will tell us if you truly are ready to leave my tutelage and set out on your own to learn what no amount of lessons can teach," Yuna replied.

"I'll do my best, then," Hana agreed. "Oh, and Koln also agreed to be one of my Guardians, so he's going to be coming along with me when I leave."

Yuna met the silvery-gray haired man's gaze and asked, "You've accepted the responsibility which comes from being a Summoner's Guardian, Koln, descendant of Paine?"

"I have," he agreed. "I was honestly surprised to be asked, but I respect Hana and I also want to be able to travel this way, to learn things for myself."

Nodding, Yuna said, "That's two Guardians registered, then." Her gaze moved to Auron as she said, "Prepare your trial for Hana, Auron, and we'll see how things go from there."

He inclined his head and rose, then looked at Eden with a quirked brow. "Wakka mentioned some of your skills to me. I'd like to ask you to lend me a hand—it will make the preparations much faster."

"Okay," Eden agreed, looking surprised, but as Auron left the clearing, the blond followed him.

They didn't take long to reach an area Auron liked—they had walked through it to get to Omega Rock from the shore—where he said, "You'll need to leave some notes with questions, riddles, or indicators for Hana to follow. That would seem odd for what will essentially be an obstacle course, but necessary after some of my past experiences. I can mostly arrange the 'traps' myself. And the most important things I need to know about her I'll be personally voicing as she advances."

"Is this the normal sort of test an Aeon gives?" Eden asked curiously.

"No," the man replied, moving through the area—and stopping as a very strange, aqua-colored creature with almost wing-like ears landed on a stump in front of him.

"Carbuncle," Eden called.

" _Hi hi!_ " the creature called back. " _Can I help, too? This sounds fun!_ "

Eden gave a snort and looked at Auron to say, "Carbuncle is mainly a defensive Summon who casts protective shielding and speed boosts. Will that be useful to your plan? And what's the usual sort of test?"

"Normally, Aeons ask strictly for a combat test, wanting to see the Summoner's power," Auron replied, answering the second question first as he eyed Carbuncle thoughtfully. "But in this case, I've overpowered every Summon, including Sin, so she would never be able to succeed at a test like that. It also isn't really what I want to know about her. I'm going to be her strength until she's strong enough on her own terms to handle things—assuming she's worthy of protecting for that long. I may just have a use for your skills as well, Carbuncle."

" _Yay!_ " the Summon cheered, hopping over to Eden and perching on his shoulder.

"So, what's the plan?" Eden asked, absently reaching up to pat the Summon on the head—he was missing Libby, and having Carbuncle there helped some.

FoW

It wasn't too long before Eden returned to tell Hana that Auron was ready for her, and that he would prefer only a few people watch. Karru, Koln, Yuna and her Guardians, and Eden himself were the only ones Auron wanted to see there. As such, Hana (with her staff being left in Aeris' care, as she didn't think she'd need it with a largely intellectual challenge) and the named people followed Eden back to the site, where he directed Hana to what served as the starting point for the course, then led the others to a good point off to the side where they'd be able to see what happened. Carbuncle, who was hopping around the course, caught everyone's eye, and Auron was standing at the goal.

"Are you prepared, Summoner Hana?" Auron called to her as she gazed at the rough terrain between her and him.

"As much as I can be, I suppose. What are the rules of progression?" she called back.

"You can see five Spheres around the course area, yes?" he asked. When she called back her affirmative—that they glowed made them obvious, she knew—he said, "You need to reach them all. When you see strange features on your route, whether something as outlandish as a ball sitting at the side of the trail or as mundane as a sheet of paper, take note of it. You won't be able to cross some segments of the path without those. You need to have activated and correctly handled each of the five Spheres to reach me, and while there aren't many combat opponents here, you'll need to use your skills in other ways. There are also some hidden—clues—which may ease or shorten your route, should you find them, but those are effectively 'bonus points'—you won't lose anything on my judgment of you by not finding them, but you'll gain some leniency by doing so. No, you can't ask the observers for help. Any questions?"

After a moment of thought, Hana asked, "Would I lose anything by finding the 'bonus points' and not using them?"

His brow rose, but he said, "That would depend on the situation. There is one I would judge you harshly for not using if you find it, and one I would rather you not use even if you _do_ find it. Any others operate by the terms I gave you, and finding them is the more important factor than using them. Deciding how best to handle them is up to you. Anything else?"

"Do I have a time limit?" she asked shrewdly.

"I won't stipulate one, but the longer it takes will show an obvious lack of skill and ability. Any other questions?"

"No, those were it," she replied.

"Then begin!" he practically thundered.

Curiously, Hana moved off the starting line and into the start of the path. She was aware that her view, her ability to see what was coming, was somewhat limited, so details of traps were pretty much non-visual, and she'd have to take them as they came. From what she had seen as they'd approached, she didn't think she had three paths because she needed to pick one, she had three because they each led to a Sphere, so she would probably have to back-track more than once. If she was right, though, it was the left path which would lead straight through, so she'd need the first two before that.

Picking the right-hand path, she walked at an easy pace, keeping her eyes open for anything she could see which was strange. As she came to the first 'strange' object, she found a piece of paper with something like a color riddle on it. Taking it with her, she made her way forward until she reached a patch of flowers, where she paused to look around at them. Something seemed off, and she couldn't see anything below them because they were so tightly clustered. Most were white, but there were specific other colors in isolated spots across the space, including a black one. That black flower reminded her of the color riddle, so she took out the paper again.

Re-reading it made her chuckle—it wasn't a riddle, just instructions for crossing the patch safely. Some flowers were apparently hiding dangers, while others were safe, so by following the instructions, she could cross safely. It didn't take her long to realize those were the majority of the trials she would have to deal with on the path, as well as active climbing or dodging, magic casting at appropriate moments, and other general tests of all her skills. She also realized the winding route was long, and she was already getting tired by the time she got to the first Sphere. It was obvious she'd have to save her strength and use her skills wisely to complete the test.

The Sphere was another matter. When she touched it, the Sphere conjured a younger version of Auron, katana in hand, and he attacked her. Something told her to dodge, and she only just missed his blade—but it _did_ strike a tree branch, cutting it off the tree. In other words, this was a Gamesphere projection and could hurt her. A 'Scan' (1) of it showed an opponent who was above her skill level, but not so far above it she had no chance, and he had no actual weaknesses. She, on the other hand, was limited to unarmed combat and magic, and she now wondered if leaving her staff behind had been wise. Regardless, the battle lasted several minutes as she worked hard to dodge and attack the Auron projection, but finally, she _did_ defeat him, sighing tiredly as she dropped to her knees to rest for a few minutes.

Until the projection reappeared, and her eyes widened as he raised his sword. "No, please..." she said softly, knowing she wasn't ready to fight again yet.

"Why should I stop?" he asked, gaze full of anger. "Cast aside, betrayed—why should I spare _you_? Why should I show _you_ compassion?" It almost felt like she was tilting sideways at the words. The way he was speaking clearly indicated he was asking, "Why should I show you something which wasn't shown to me?"

At first, she didn't know how to proceed, but then she regained her bearings and said, "I don't know how to answer you. Any claim I could make, I have no way to prove my honesty." It was the truth. She could say she hadn't, but _any_ one would say that to save their own skin, and it couldn't be proven either false or true.

After a silence, the projection barked out, "Who are you?"

"A Summoner named Hana," she answered honestly. "Well, I'm trying to earn my first Aeon to start my Pilgrimage."

"...To defeat Sin?" he asked slowly.

With a blink, she assessed that, and realized she was talking to the past Auron, the one from—probably even before he'd gone with Yuna's and Tidus' fathers, Braska and Jecht. Then she smiled and rose. "Yes. Why don't you join me on my journey? I could use a skilled swordsman."

He was silent for a moment, then his blade lowered and he asked, "You would give a position of such honor to one deemed to have none?"

Shaking her head, she told him, "I don't believe anyone should have no second chance to prove themselves. Even if you did what everyone claims you did, you should have a chance to correct the error. What better way than this?" Offering her hand to him, she asked again, "Join me?"

There was a moment of hesitation, then his eyes showed gratitude as he reached forward to take her offered hand. His body began dissolving into the Sphere she'd first touched, settling into her hand, as she heard him say in a fading voice, "Take me with you, Summoner Hana."

Breathing a sigh of relief, she realized for the first time that Auron's test wasn't going to be anything like easy, regardless of the combat requirements. And she had to do that four more times?

Hana now really regretted leaving her staff behind.

 **Notes:**

(1) FFVII uses Sense as the Command ability to gain data on opponents. FFX has a Scan spell (as far as I know), but the functionality is pretty much the same. Since this part is from Hana's perspective, she's calling it Scan.


	55. 52-Progress

**A/N:** Hana's part took more space and time than expected, even though I DID largely skip her challenge because I didn't think people would want to read the whole thing. I just felt showing this was sort of necessary because of future events which will be going on before FoW ends.

Progress

Hana was definitely tired by the time she reached the fifth, and last, Sphere. All she could say was that she hoped there wouldn't be much more to do, and she'd learned already that looks were deceiving on this course. It may not have been much left to go, but that didn't mean she'd have an easy time of it, and it looked like one of her obstacles was a pit of some sort.

Turning her attention back to the Sphere she'd just arrived at, she reached out to touch it, causing it to activate and calling forth an image of Auron very much like how he looked just then. She could safely assume by the timeline progression of the other Spheres that this time, he was appearing as he had been around the time of the end of his Pilgrimage with Aunt Yuna. A quick Scan of his status revealed that he was indeed as strong as he could be, a sign of how far along his journey he'd come. Needless to say, she had never used the Scan spell as many times as she had since starting Auron's challenge.

This Auron, like the last three, didn't attack her (though one had made a half-hearted attempt to do so), instead gazing at her evenly before saying, "You're exhausted. You should rest."

She blinked. _What?_

"Really. Stop and rest. Regain your strength. It isn't as though you have somewhere you _must_ be just now. If you won't even take care of yourself, how do you expect to take care of everyone _else_?" the projection went on.

All at once, she felt every bit of the strain she'd put her body through to get to where she was, and she was very tempted to do what he said. It would make the last stretch so much easier, and he had a point about needing to take care of herself, or she wouldn't be able to fulfill her role as a Summoner.

But something held her back from just—doing so.

"You've already worked hard and shown so much strength. No one would begrudge you a chance to rest to be prepared for the final battle," the Auron projection added as she wavered.

As she finished processing the words, she realized something was wrong. Running them over again in her mind, she wondered why it wasn't right—and it suddenly hit her, he'd said 'to be prepared for the _final battle_ '. Auron the unsent had said this was largely not intended to be a combat-related test, and the 'combat' part of it, she'd already done. There was no way a man as strong as him would fight her with his full strength—he'd kill her in one blow.

"Which battle do you mean?" she asked slowly.

"Against my unsent self," he replied evenly.

Her head tipped to the side as she assessed that. _Could_ he mean to fight her? No, she still came back to the same answer as the first time—he'd kill her in one blow, even if she was well-rested. Since she was facing this test alone, there were no Guardians to help her take on the odds, either. Not that it would matter when neither was any more fit to fight him than she was.

"Go on. Sit down and rest—there's even a seat you can use just behind you," he informed her, tipping his chin slightly to the side of her.

A glance showed the seat, which had originally been hidden from her view by a bush upon entering the space. Again, her body protested the strain she'd put it through and begged to rest, but some part of her resisted.

Why did this seem so wrong?

Resting now was...likely to make the next stretch of the journey _harder_ , not easier, not unless she was going to rest for a substantial time. If she had the luxury of resting overnight, she'd be more than happy to do so, but the fact of the matter was that she couldn't do so if she expected to finish the test in a reasonable time. Also, once she rested her muscles, they would _not_ be pleased with her and would _need_ time to recover, just for her to use them correctly, so it was better not to let them relax until she was at the end of the course. And she was so close to the end that it would actually seem more feasible to finish, then rest—she wasn't on a Pilgrimage, just an isolated event which was very much finite.

"For how long?" she suddenly asked him, eyes drooping. She had to reach up to rub them to return to alertness.

"I beg your pardon?" he asked in mild surprise.

"How long do you expect me to rest for?" she asked again.

"As long as you need. Go ahead. I'll watch over you," the Auron projection replied.

Shaking her head, she told him, "You know, if this was a long Pilgrimage, I probably would rest, as you said. But this isn't, and if I rest now, I'm going to fail the test by taking too long. It's unfortunate, but I'm more likely to finish by proceeding forward from here, not stopping to rest."

"Even though it means you won't be prepared to face me?"

"No amount of rest or preparation will make me prepared to face a man who can kill me in one blow. So no, that won't actually make any difference in this case."

He was silent for a long moment before he asked, "You're sure you want to proceed forward without resting?"

"I'm sure," Hana agreed mildly with a small smile. "Thank you for reminding me to rest, though—I'll do that once I've finished the test."

After a silence, he gave a nod of acceptance, and vanished back into the Sphere he'd emerged from. She suddenly felt much less tired, achy, and worn—and she blinked as she realized she'd been spelled by something.

She glared at the real Auron and mouthed, "You conniving, sneaky, old man!"

His response was a small, entirely amused smile.

Taking the Sphere from where it rested, she added it to her collection and proceeded forward, not seeing anything at all but the last, direct path to Auron and the hole in the middle of it. The hole was rather large, and looking into it showed her there was no visible bottom. It was too wide for her to jump, and she'd seen nothing which would let her bypass it, not even any clues as to how. The only thing she could see, hopping up and down in the middle of the path a few feet past the hole, was the odd little being who had protected Sanni during Yuna's tantrum, at Eden's request.

"Um—excuse me—Summon?" she called over to it, and was ignored. "Could you please help me, Summon?" she tried. It ignored her again, so she racked her brain, trying to think of something else she could say, or call it. Then she remembered what Eden had called out when he'd summoned it. "Carbuncle!"

She blinked in mild surprise as it turned to hop over to the edge of the hole and bounced up and down there as it asked, " _Did you need something?_ "

"Have you got knowledge of a way across this pit?" she asked carefully, not wanting to assume it would be what would help her. It was possible it just had the clues needed.

" _Just walk across it!_ " the creature replied happily, hopping back to where it had been before.

"Just—How, Carbuncle?" she asked in surprise.

" _Just cross it! Put one foot in front of the other! It's easy, and you won't fall!_ " the small being happily replied, amusing itself by bouncing between a fallen log on one side of the trail and a rock on the other.

She looked back at the hole worriedly, wondering if she could trust the creature's word. As much as she wanted to, her life was at stake. Though, she didn't think Auron wanted her _dead_ , whether he chose to be her Aeon or not, but that didn't make the hole with no visible bottom less frightening. Anyone with any sense wouldn't take the chance, though she supposed Summoners were a bit different in that regard, especially ones like Yuna—and Auron, even though he was a Guardian, not a Summoner—who had lived very long lives. Where did one draw the line at a risk worth taking?

Could she do it?

A glance at Auron showed no notable expression on his face. Like it or not, she still had to pass the hole to reach him. Wasn't Carbuncle able to create an impassable barrier? If so, and it had created one in the pit's mouth, that would feasibly mean she could walk on it, and it would resist her presence, keep her from falling.

"Carbuncle!" she called again. It stopped hopping to look at her, so she asked, "Are you using your power on the hole right now?"

It made a motion like a giggle, then kicked a small stone so it hit the hole—and stopped at about ground level, above a tiny patch of glowing light which hadn't been there until something had touched it. With a blink, she decided to take the chance, and stepped forward, watching her foot—and sure enough, her foot stopped at the same level as the stone, and a small patch of light glowed softly around it. With that assurance, she walked forward, still curiously watching her feet, and noting shifts in the strength of the glow. If it grew too pale, she would divert to the side where the stronger glow was, but otherwise, it didn't take much to cross the space.

On the far side, after she'd made it back to solid land, she looked up at the Summon with a smile and said, "Thank you, Carbuncle."

" _You're welcome!_ " it replied cheerfully.

As she made her way to Auron, it hopped along behind her, and when she stopped in front of the man, it hopped onto her shoulder to—presumably—watch and listen to the exchange.

Before she could speak, the man asked, "Where is your staff, Hana?"

"I had left it with a Gaian named Aeris, back at Omega Rock, thinking I wouldn't need it for a largely intellectual test," Hana replied honestly, voice wry. "This would have been much easier with it, though." When he raised a brow, she said, "I won't make the same mistake again. I assumed incorrectly, so rather than preparing for 'any' eventuality, I only prepared for what I thought I would need."

"Fair enough," he agreed. "But you did very well without it, so that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Especially if one of the lessons you took from this is to prepare yourself properly. Now...Why did you choose the path of the Summoner?"

With a blink, Hana thought about the question for a couple minutes, then replied, "The whole time I was growing up, I watched Aunt Yuna counsel people, mediate in difficult situations, and send on anyone who hadn't been able to go on their own, and I watched her dance, felt the energies flowing. It called to me in a way nothing else ever did, and when I was about ten, I copied her dance when pyreflies were coalescing in my hometown and Aunt Yuna wasn't there. It worked, and I'd never felt so whole. That was also when my parents and Aunt Yuna agreed to let me train. I've never doubted my path, hard though it may be."

Auron's head tipped to the side as he met her gaze for a minute, then he nodded. "You passed every test I left for you to get to me. Given the handicap of not having your staff, you did very well, and reached me in a decent time. I've seen a great deal of who you are as a person, and I would like to see what kind of Summoner you will grow into. I shall be your First Summon."

"Thank you, Auron," Hana smiled at him. "It'll be good to have you with me on my journey." His lips quirked in a faint smile as he gave a nod.

"In that case," Yuna cut in suddenly as she and the other observers joined the two of them. "Because Auron isn't already a fayth with an Aeon form, we still need to go through the full ceremony to make the transition. We'll need to prepare that soon, in the next couple of days. Tomorrow evening, if we can manage the preparations by then, or at whatever point everything's ready. In the meantime, we should head back to Omega Rock." She then faced Eden and said, "Oh, and there's also something I need to give you, which should be ready by morning. Normally, there would be two, but we can forgo one of them."

"Something you need to give me?" he asked in surprise.

"Ah! The mark of an apprentice Summoner!" Hana said happily as she realized what he needed.

"What mark?" the blond asked in confusion.

In response, Hana gave him a mischievous look and asked, "Oh, do you not realize the one difference between Yuna and myself? It's pretty obvious, besides the patterns on our clothes."

Rikku and Karru both started giggling, while most of the rest looked wryly amused, and Eden began looking between the two women rapidly as he assessed. Then, he turned pale and said, "No. I'm not putting on a God-damned _earring_!"

"Like you were sure you wouldn't want to dance the sending dance?" Yuna asked in amusement. He just gave her a flinty glare. "Eden, whether you like it or not, you're a Summoner now, and people _need_ to know you're someone they can go to for help. Every Spiran recognizes the apprentices' and Summoners' earrings, so you _must_ wear it—not for yourself or for tradition, but because _others_ need that cue. It's no different from your Turk uniform or even the burning tail tips of the Moto Tribe—it makes who and what you are blatantly obvious and visible. So too does our earring."

"Men really wear it?" the blond asked incredulously.

"They wear it with the same honor and pride as any other Summoner or apprentice," the woman replied gently. "You'll be meeting other Summoners soon, not just myself and Hana, so you'll be able to see it then. On the other hand, having just an earring as an indicator also means you can keep dressing in your other uniform."

He just sighed, trailing along after the group as they headed back towards Omega Rock.

FoW

Tseng blinked his eyes open tiredly, then reached up to rub them. He still felt tired and weighed down, but not so completely he couldn't function or stay awake. More, he _wanted_ to move around, even if it would be slowly and gently. Despite having woken briefly before and having a vague memory of seeing his mother, the memory had an oddly surreal feeling, making him think it hadn't happened. More than that, he had no idea what the state of the battle was. How long had he been out? How was everyone, and why had he hallucinated seeing his mother? Had he actually died?

It only took a moment for him to discard the last thought—he wouldn't feel like he currently did if he had. And he had the distinct sensation he associated with people he knew, cared about, having died. The only question then was, who?

"Ren," a familiar voice said, sounding pleased, and he tensed before sitting bolt-upright to stare at the woman sitting beside the bed. "It is good to see you awake," she added, and he blinked.

Hold on, exactly where _was_ he, and why was she—his mother—there?

She gave him an amused look and said, "Approximately five hundred years have passed since we left the Planet. The situation here was such that Minerva released all of the Summons not bound to Materia so we could assist in the battle and the subsequent rescues and clean-up required."

"The battle—" Tseng began, eyes wide and lips pursed. "I have to—" he began as he moved to rise.

The woman rested her hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down. "The battle has been done for nearly three full days, Ren. The others are managing admirably, though are hoping to have you back soon. Much has happened in that time, and one of those things is having met our new neighbors, the people of Spira, the world we are on now."

He took a long moment to search her gaze, those crystalline eyes, then tears filled his own eyes as he reached out to hug her. It hit him, really hit him, as her arms wrapped around him as they had so many times when he'd been a child, that this particular twist of fate had given him back the one member of his family who wasn't 'dead' by the true definition of the term. What they had all suffered when he'd been ten had been awful, and had left him completely alone—his mother forced into a lengthy recovery and his father and siblings dead—with no chance of reunion until he died, himself. The recovery time based on the torture she had suffered before fading back to spirit form would have been about a hundred and ten years.

If five hundred or so had passed, then yes, this journey to another world had given him back something more valuable than he had words to describe.

At the realization that his mother was indeed there, it took him over half an hour to calm down again. When he finally did and sat back from her, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up—to see Aeris. "It's good to see you awake, big brother," she smiled, reaching out to hug him, a hug he readily returned.

"I'm so glad you're safe," he told her, relief in his voice. As she pulled back to sit beside him on the bed, he asked, "What about the others?"

"Most of the ones you were close to are fine," the younger woman said. "Obviously, there were some losses, some of those the students. It couldn't be avoided. But the number of 'Turks' has about doubled after the Turks did that...um...mourning circle, I think Genesis and Reeve called it? They basically said someone who wasn't accepted as a Turk couldn't go near them when they were like that because the deaths of Turks is sacred to you—or something?"

"It is," Tseng agreed. "Who died?"

She shook her head. "The only one of them who I knew was Judet. I think there were two others, but her death was the hardest blow. The mourning circle wouldn't even have happened if Eden hadn't gotten Reno to let the feeling out."

Releasing a deep breath, Tseng held his fingers to his eyes as he felt the jolt and sting of knowing Judet had died. "We hadn't even finished mourning Maur and Alvis, and to lose Judet and..." He paused, then muttered, "I have to find out from Reno who the other losses were...And who our apparent new recruits are..." After another pause, he asked, "What about in the other units, and what about Rufus?"

"He's okay—he fought as hard as anyone, but barely had a scratch through it all," she replied in faint amusement. "All that fighting to travel the world, and the Northern Crater, really paid off. I think only one of the Motos died...There were several in the Guardian Forces. Um...Gaia's Refuge lost a couple dozen, and SOLDIER wasn't far behind them, but a lot of those were lost because of the tidal wave, not in the battle."

"What tidal wave?" the Wutain man asked in horrified confusion, looking up at her and his mother.

Hikari replied gently, "There was a fiend in the ocean which your transformation barely touched." She then explained to him about the tidal wave, the corresponding wave sent through the air, and the search and rescue operation.

After staring at her for a few long moments, he shook his head and asked, "And I slept through all this?"

"You weren't asleep, Tseng," Aeris told him quietly.

"Wasn't I?" he asked his mother.

Hikari shook her head. "You were near death the entire time, Ren. Until the last time you woke briefly, I was feeding you energy directly to keep you alive after the sheer quantity of it your body chose to expel then. It would have been more accurate to say you were comatose, but you were not asleep."

He paused, then sighed and said, "I feel like I failed them..."

"You didn't fail any of us," Aeris told him bluntly, taking his chin to make him look up at her. "You saved a lot of people by doing what you did, and everyone else, especially the Turks, have been waiting anxiously for you to wake up. Even when everyone was trying to fix Shelke so she wouldn't just deteriorate and die, someone would come around every few hours to ask me or Lady Hikari if you'd woken yet."

Tseng tipped his head to the side at the new news, frowning as he asked, "What? Aeris, what _else_ have I missed?"

"Um...it might just be easier to show you..." she replied, then smiled and rose as she offered her hand to him. "If you feel up to it, we can walk over to the seating area Eden made around where we woke up."

Eying her hand for a moment as he assessed the state of his body, he gave a nod and took the hand. Both Aeris and Hikari helped him rise, then let him walk by himself to take care of his needs in the small washroom. When he was done and had freshened up a bit, they walked with him outside (he noted Aeris was carrying a staff he'd never seen before), where he could see several small airships, some of a style he'd have called 'shuttles', had landed and were clearly serving as shelters for many people. They were similar in style to the larger airships he'd seen in the air around the island, so assumed they'd been effectively 'donated' to help the new arrivals...and likely the survivors of the downed airship.

The one his power had shot out of the air.

It didn't take long for them to reach the space, where he could indeed see many tables and people scattered all around the area. They paused at the edge of the clearing, the two women looking for someone—

But they didn't get far before a familiar voice shouted, "Tseng!" A moment later, he found himself wrapped up in a tight hug as Eden apparently tried to break his ribs.

"Too tight..." he gasped faintly, producing a watery chuckle as Eden released him and pulled back to meet his gaze searchingly. "I'm—recovering," he offered. "I'm still tired and sore, though."

With a nod, the blond looked over his shoulder, then stepped aside—and he found Rufus and the rest of the Turks gathering around him to hug him or clap him on the back or shoulder. As he scanned each of them, he could see exactly who was missing, all five of them. He had no further time to ponder it, though, as others began approaching to give him the same attention the Turks had—Gaia's Refuge had some, SOLDIER had some, and there were others like Reeve who also greeted him with hugs.

It seemed Aeris had been right to say no one had been anything but worried about him after he had passed out. The only thing he actually noted outside that was how a young woman not much older than Aeris apparently retrieved her staff from the half-Cetra.


	56. 53-Fayth

Fayth

Everyone mostly returned to what they had been doing once Tseng had been welcomed back to the fold. Rufus and Reeve quickly introduced him to the Spirans of note—the unsent were particularly notable—then appropriated him to bring him up to speed on all the smaller details of what had been happening since he'd fallen comatose. Thankfully, that only required him to sit and listen to them, occasionally asking questions about things he found confusing. The history lesson came up, as well as the fayth and the Aeons, but when he questioned why those were important, the reason shocked him—Eden was a Summoner. A Spiran-version one.

Turning his head to look, he saw the blond Turk sitting with Yuna at a small table as they spoke quietly and intently. By the periodic frowns of aggravation or confusion he gave and the fact that Yuna was doing most of the talking, he thought she may have been 'teaching' him then. What she was teaching him was another question entirely, but it was likely. After recalling his origins and his brother, he realized it could well be true he'd always been one, and Yuna had just been reacting like _any_ teacher when finding someone in need of lessons.

That she'd noticed the situation and realized what it was—that said a lot about her own ability in her profession. Then again, thirty-five hundred years was a long time to perfect it.

A blond woman in mostly green and yellow Captain's clothing suddenly dropped down into the fourth, and only free, seat at the table, saying, "We've been distracted three times now when I've tried to tell you what we found after our trip earlier. It's about time I get to tell you." There was a rolled-up paper in one of her hands.

"Tell us what, Captain Sanni?" Rufus asked with a puzzled frown.

She laid the paper on the table and unrolled it, showing what was clearly a map. "I got one of our Spheres to make this from my memory of the grid layout we built while we were having a look at what we'd found. Obviously, this over here is Spira's original land mass," she told the men as she pointed at the familiar continent and islands from the previous map, all of them listening curiously as they peered at the new map. Her finger tapped the middle of the ocean near the eastern coast of the continent she hadn't just pointed to. "This is the island we're on right now—roughly. It's too small to register on a map at this small of a scale, so I'm guessing a bit. This other continent is a new continent which only just appeared between the day you arrived and now."

The men traded looks, then Reeve asked, "How much of Spira flooded because of the water displacement?"

She smirked and shook her head. "None of it. Your Minerva put your new home up on bloody stilts. Have fun trying to defend your underwater support pillars. She even arranged for the bloody thing to leave space for the ocean currents and wind currents to largely stay the same. Basically, this new land mass isn't changing much about what was here, but you guys _do_ have one very good current for bringing in seafood and fish for you to eat."

The woman paused to trace a line across the continent with her fingertip, mostly lined up with the mountain range in the middle of it. "That's roughly where the Kush Current runs. It's too far from our lands for us to normally bother with—for most, transporting goods from there is too time-consuming. That means you're not fighting anyone for it, and you lot get first dibs. We _know_ it's a good, untapped source, but since we never bothered to stake a claim, have at. The whole rest of the area we _do_ use always provides more than we need, anyway, even at our best."

"It's good to know this, but...How will we get there?" Reeve asked slowly. "It's too far for us to swim."

"Theoretically, you actually _could_ swim it from here," Sanni replied dryly. "The distance isn't too bad—it's really just over past the horizon. A normal paddle-boat would get you there in an hour or two, and we took less than half an hour—our time was taken with circling the perimeter and getting a feel for what was in the middle of the continent. But we wouldn't make you try to swim it unless someone _wanted_ to—that's what airships are for. After all our losses..." She paused for a moment as sorrow crossed her gaze, then drew in a breath and went on, "We have the capacity to ferry people across the distance. And there aren't many of you."

"Are you sure?" Tseng asked with a mild glare.

"Your people are all here, right?" she asked with a frown.

He shook his head. "Reeve and Shelke both appeared from inside Omega Rock _after_ the battle. Even _I_ was aware the only people placed here initially were the combat personnel, given what we were about to be hit with. What about all our civilians, who are still in there while we wait for space to open up right here on this island? Our doctors, our scientists, our engineers, our farmers—what about all of them? What about the children who were also brought with us?"

Sanni blinked, then asked, "So what is she—your entity—waiting for if those people exist?"

"I'd hazard a guess and say they're waiting for us to establish them a place to live," Reeve replied quietly.

Her expression was flat as she told him bluntly, "Your military personnel _aren't_ going to be building your homes or farming your fields—you'd all have already started if you were going to. You'd better tell Minerva that you rather _need_ some of your civilian population if any of you will be able to 'establish places to live' for the rest." She rose as they blinked at her, informing them, "Either way, if you actually have as large of a population as you say, they won't all fit here, so we'll have to start ferrying them over once you've got some people with you who can actually _build_ your new homes. The offer's open whenever you need it."

"Even though you're upset over us 'stealing Spiran skills' from you?" Rufus asked, and she froze.

After a pause as Tseng shot Rufus a confused look, the woman replied, "I'm _still_ not happy about that, but I'd _much_ rather you guys inhabit your _own_ land, rather than taking space on _ours_." She then walked away.

"What did that mean?" the Wutain asked as Rufus gave a derisive snort.

"She's still acting like a child a step away from a temper tantrum," Rufus shrugged, looking over at Reeve.

The older man looked sad. "She's keeping better control of herself, but yes, she seems to be stuck in that state, even after what she drove Yuna to and what she nearly did to Karru. If that's how all Al Bhed really behave, they'll be a huge challenge to work with, technological brilliance aside. How no one has ever tried to murder them all, I'll never know."

"Would you _please_ fill me in?" Tseng asked irritably at being left out of whatever they were talking about.

"Sure," Rufus agreed. "Here's what happened."

FoW

Eden was sitting with Yuna as she explained to him the ritual to create an Aeon, and he was finding it more and more distasteful the more she explained. "So, first you want me to dance, then you want me to wear jewelry, and now you want me to sing?" he asked once she was done the explanation. "And to top all _that_ off, you want me to learn how to sacrifice a living human being for my own gain?"

She smiled in amusement and said, "First, Eden, this is a song literally all Spirans know and sing. Male, female, young, old, rich, poor, all races, and all factions. Tidus and Wakka could teach it to you if you'd rather learn the words and rhythm from them, but either way, you need to know it. Especially since you'll be participating in the ritual as my student. And as to your last accusation, I think you need to realize the difference between willing self-sacrifice and the unwilling sacrifice of another."

"Is there one?" he asked, gaze angry.

At least, he'd tried to make it angry, but Yuna could see the hurt, the pain, beneath that anger. She didn't take offense to it, knowing these people had no grasp of that function in their society. "You told me about your bond with your brother," she told him in quiet tones, and his eyes widened as the anger bled away to be replaced by the hurt he truly felt. "Did you ever ask your brother what his choice would have been? Would he have preferred to be left 'dead', or to stay at your side while both of you tried to fix what you had done?"

For a long moment, Eden was quiet. Edward Elric thought back over everything he and his brother had talked about, how much they had both suffered...how little they actually would have changed about their lives. Finally, he said quietly, "I never asked him, but...I think his choice would have been to stay at my side in any way he could have. Just by everything we went through, everything we shared, everything I know about him...I think that would have been what he wanted."

Yuna nodded. "What about you, if your positions had been reversed? Would you have wanted to stay by his side while he tried to fix everything that had gone wrong, helped him in any way you could?"

"Yes," he answered, barely above a whisper.

"Even if that meant your physical body had to die, and you'd remain only as a spirit tied intrinsically to him?" she pressed.

Again, the blond was quiet for several minutes, but then he finally looked up at her and admitted, "Yes, even then."

"Your faith in that decision, that desire to remain with him, even after death, is what gives you the power, the ability, to become a fayth. That dream, that love, that bond, is everything to the energies which allow the fayth to form. That's why they're called 'fayth' while in their human state, before their dream begins forming them into an Aeon. That's why the being which results has both a human form and a non-human or semi-human form. And the Aeon chooses a Summoner who they feel is worthy of sharing their dream, not just some random person who shows up.

"Some Summoners are lucky and have the ability to meet an existing Aeon after their first Summoner died, but right now, there are none unclaimed. And there's also no guarantee an existing Summon will accept you as their Summoner. For Hana, she has no other choice but to find someone willing to become her First, and theoretically, she only ever needs the one. Most Summoners end up with more, often existing ones, not new ones, but there's always the chance that even a Guardian about to die would choose the path of the fayth to stay at their Summoner's side. Even for you, there may be existing bonds so deep with others around you that one of them who was about to die would prefer to become a fayth instead."

She paused, then reached out and touched his hand gently. "The creation of a fayth and an Aeon _isn't_ you killing someone for your own gain, it's someone choosing to end their life in a physical body so they can keep living, for you, and for others after you as well. More than anything, a fayth is someone who doesn't want to disappear from this world, even in death, someone who still has dreams and hopes for this world, this life. None of that is _your_ choice, and you can't force it on someone. And the _best_ way for you to get a feel for what that means is to meet some existing fayth and Aeons. Which is actually fine, because I still need to speak with Ivan—to apologize for what I made him do to Sanni."

"Yuna," Eden began as she started rising. When she stopped and sat back down with a nod, he asked, "Doesn't it hurt to do that to someone you care about?"

The question was one no Spiran had ever asked, or had ever needed to, but Yuna still knew the answer. "It does. It's a big change in both your lives, and it takes time to adapt to. That's why 'choice' on the side of the fayth is the only way it works. Most of them really only do it either because they just wanted to live so very badly, even knowing their body was going to die, or because they just cared so much about their first Summoner that the 'sacrifice' on their side was more of an honest desire. But it also means the person will actually out-live you, and they aren't really dead by that definition. Once you realize that, it becomes easier to adapt to their new form."

"Is that also why you told me to respect the decision if someone I knew chose to become an Aeon for me?" the blond asked, his expression a cross between apprehension and realization.

"It is," she agreed with a small smile. "Right now, I have four Aeons. It's taken me eight hundred years to accept those four, and three of them are Aeons who chose to end their human lives for me, while one of them I inherited from a former student. Shall we go meet with them away from this gathering?"

With a nod, the younger man agreed, and both rose to go back to the same place he'd practiced the dance in—the one now marred with a line of broken earth. There, the woman closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath as she called, "Tenza, Ivan, Elon, Galina, come and speak with me, please."

Eden blinked as four humans appeared around her, one of whom immediately lit into her with, "What the Farplane did you think you were _doing_?" The speaker's skin was tanned, but he otherwise looked like any ordinary man, and wasn't even very bulked up. If anything, with his long, dark hair in a loose ponytail, he'd have taken him as some sort of gardener—a very angry one just then. His dark glare directed at Yuna was hard and flinty.

Of the other three, who all seemed as surprised as Eden was, one was a girl of about ten, one was a more aged man, and one was a middle-aged woman. The girl definitely shared looks with Yuna, much like Hana did, only she had even inherited Yuna's heterochromia, even if her hair was more like Hana's. For clothing, she seemed to be dressed in a sleeveless shirt and a cute skirt with leggings underneath. The aged man had peppery hair and was in pretty good shape for an old man dressed in what looked like a religious robe, but there was a blue earring like Yuna's in his ear. The last woman, he took one look at and thought 'healer'. She had red-blond hair, dark eyes, and dressed in a rather soothing robe in mostly greens and purples.

"I am so sorry, Ivan," she told him with heart-felt sorrow in her gaze. "I know I hurt you by doing what I did—I hurt myself as well. For the first time, I realize the danger of keeping my emotions bottled up, and unfortunately, Sanni, you, and I all paid the price for it."

For several long moments, he glared at her, then sighed and turned his gaze to the crack in the ground. "I thought you would justify what you did. You took a long time to call for me."

Shaking her head, Yuna replied, "I owe you and myself a lot more, a lot better, than a lie like that. No matter how angry I was, my actions weren't justified, and my own rage made you helpless to refuse—it channeled to you too strongly. The question now is, would you rather I release you to find another Summoner, or can we still repair what I broke?"

His gaze moved back to her, then he asked, "Why did it take you so long to call for me?"

"I wasn't stable enough to do so," she replied honestly. "I mean that my emotional state wasn't capable of allowing me the focus to summon. That only returned to me recently, so I called to you, all of you, because ultimately, this involves all of you."

"...And the boy?" Ivan asked, pointing his chin at the blond behind her.

"I thought, while I speak with each of you, it would be possible for those I'm not speaking with to answer his questions. He's a new Summoner, but he's also not Spiran and doesn't have the grasp of the fayth and the ritual to create an Aeon which a Spiran would have," she explained.

"Uh, so what happened, Auntie?" the younger girl asked in confusion.

"She used me in a fit of rage to kill Sanni," Ivan spat out, face twisted in mixed anger, pain, and betrayal.

The others' eyes widened in shocked horror, but all eyes were drawn to Eden as he crossed his arms and said, "Who isn't dead because I healed and shielded her with help from Carbuncle."

"Who?" the four fayth asked in confusion.

" _Hi hi!_ " the Summon in question greeted cheerfully as it landed on Eden's shoulder. " _I'm Carbuncle! Sanni's fine, she's just throwing a temper tantrum and being stubborn._ "

"That doesn't change what Yuna forced me to do!" Ivan glared at the small creature.

" _I didn't say it did,_ " Carbuncle replied cheerfully. " _I'm just saying, since Yuna is getting help for her emotions now, and Sanni's okay and it's really just her ego that's sore, everything isn't as dire as you're making it. I'd be_ a lot _more worried if Yuna wasn't trying to fix what's wrong._ "

Yuna turned to the small creature as the others traded looks, saying, "Thank you, Carbuncle, but the situation is really more complicated because what I did to Ivan was essentially an act of betrayal. He may not be able to forgive me, and it would be his right to do so—I would deserve it."

Carbuncle turned to look at her for a moment, ears twitching curiously, before saying, " _Just because 'he has the right to' do something doesn't make it 'the right choice.' Is this the first time this has happened?_ " The way Carbuncle asked the question made it sound like it already knew the answer.

"...Yes..." Yuna agreed slowly.

" _So if Ivan can't forgive you, he's placing you on a pedestal of 'you can do no wrong', and you've failed him for making_ one _mistake,_ " Carbuncle replied bluntly. " _You're human._ All _humans can make mistakes. If you weren't going to fix what caused the problem, there'd be a really big chance you'd make it again, but instead, you're working to keep it from happening again. If he can't forgive_ one _mistake and give you another chance, isn't that being really, really selfish, self-serving, and absurdly self-righteous? Is_ that _kind of person really someone_ you _want as a Summon you're relying on to protect you and the people around you? Everyone makes mistakes. Get over it or you're making another._ " The last sentence was clearly directed at Ivan.

Everyone gaped at Carbuncle for a moment before Eden asked dryly, "When did you get so world-wise, Carbuncle? You're practically a newborn in Summon terms."

" _Not really—I was a free-roaming Eidolon Minerva hadn't formed a proper Materia array for, but you sort of fixed that for her,_ " Carbuncle replied in amusement, reaching up to pat Eden's head. " _But actually, I'm as old as_ your _Sylph._ " The words made Eden gape at the small creature, knowing Sylph was around three thousand years old. And Carbuncle _still_ had so much energy and such a child-like behavioral pattern? And Rufus' quiet (but energetic) Carbuncle was just a baby Carbuncle? Did they age in reverse order?

"I see..." he finally said, making Carbuncle giggle. He then turned to Yuna and the other—fayth—to ask, "So, if I'm supposed to talk with them, shouldn't we be properly introduced?"

With a nod, Yuna agreed, "Yes, of course." She faced the others to say, "My new student is known as Eden of the Turks, the Turks being a highly-trained combat and spy unit. His clothing is a uniform marking him as one. I'll have his Summoner apprentice's earring to him by morning, since I only found out about his status earlier today." The four nodded in acknowledgment, so she faced Eden to say, "The youngest is Tenza, one of my descendants who was alive at about the time we had to revive Summoning in its full form. She has an Aeon form known as Ashura (1). You know Ivan's form is Titan. Tidus introduced me to him about a hundred and fifty years after Tenza joined me. Elon had been a Summoner who I had grown very close to about three hundred years ago, and has a form called Ramuh. Galina I inherited about fifty years later from one of my descendants who had trained under another Summoner. She's an Aeon called Kirin."

Eden blinked, then said, "Earth, Lighting, and Regen. What's Ashura? I don't recognize the name."

"Oh, my effect is based on what I most think is needed," Tenza grinned. "I have three options—an attack, healing, or shielding. When Auntie summons me, I take a quick look at the situation and pick one. It usually works. Feels weird having six arms, though."

Eden blinked in surprised awe as Yuna commented, "That's assuming you want to stay with me after what I did."

Tenza blinked owlishly at the older woman then said bluntly, "You're my Aunt. Do you _really_ think I'm just going to ditch you for throwing a long overdue temper tantrum? After all, pretty much the last thing I did to you before I died was throw one, hurt people—and you _still_ took me as your Aeon and gave me a purpose."

As Yuna blinked and stared in surprise, Galina put in, "Nothing about your energy has changed, Yuna. This is the first time it's happened, but personally, I always knew it might. Guess what? You're still human." She was very amused as she said the last.

"I feel much the same," Elon agreed. "Perhaps I would feel differently in Ivan's position, but for the moment, this is well enough."

Yuna seemed surprised, but realized the truth of what they were saying, so said, "Thank you," to the three, who nodded. She then looked at Ivan and asked, "Shall we step away from the others to talk more privately, then?"

"Fine," he agreed, still obviously angry, but willing to do that. They moved to the edge of the clearing.

Eden, meanwhile, had been staring at Tenza, and finally asked, "Why are you so young?"

She cocked a brow at him, looking amused. "I was born with a hole in my heart, and at the time, we were being attacked by Null, so we just didn't have most medicines and medical supports. I was going to die young and everyone knew it. I didn't want to die, but my body just couldn't handle it. Hence the tantrum I threw, the people I hurt. But then, I died, even though I didn't want to—and woke up again as a fayth, and as the Aeon Ashura. Yuna summoned me to get me to heal everyone I'd hurt, too."

With a puzzled frown, the blond Turk asked slowly, "You didn't—go through the ritual?"

"No," Tenza agreed. "In my case, I didn't _need_ to. It makes it a lot easier, but it's not actually needed. A lot of Aeons have become them just because they didn't want to die, so took the form of a fayth, and the Dream of the Fayth turned them into an Aeon. They only found a Summoner after forming as an Aeon. Auntie gave me a way to focus my attention, my path, my dream. Ashura represents my ability for destruction, as well as protection and healing. I hadn't especially meant to become an Aeon, I just didn't want to die—there was still a world to live in and a life to live."

After a pause, he asked all three, "Is the ritual something all of you agree with?"

Elon and Galina traded looks before Galina told him, "I was bleeding to death at my Summoner's feet during our Pilgrimage. Had I not chosen to take this form, I wouldn't be here now, and my Summoner would also have died, as well as our companions—all the people I most wanted to live to protect—my family. Had I had the choice, I still would have chosen this path in the ritual. Honestly, I had known it long before our Pilgrimage ended."

"I chose to undergo the ritual because in my old age, so many things had begun to come clear to me, and I suddenly truly wanted to see where Yuna and Tidus and the others would take our world," Elon informed him. "I honestly felt it wasn't my time to die, and staying with her would let me see the fate of the world. There was still so much left undone, and so much reason to stay here. Without the ritual, I may not have made the transition so easily, or perhaps not at all."

Eden gave a small sigh, but his gaze focused on Elon's earring. "...All Summoners _really do_ wear an earring, don't they?" he asked softly.

"We all do," Elon agreed in faint amusement. "And so, too, will you."

With a deep sigh, the blond accepted that he would indeed have to wear one. He didn't think he'd ever _like_ it, though.

 **Notes:**

(1) Ashura (or Asura) was a Summon (Queen of them, in fact) in the SNES FFII, or I think it was actually FFIV or FFV by the original Japanese numbers. Since FFX works a little differently from other titles, I figured I had some creative license with who I choose to use as Aeon forms.


	57. 54-Plans and Development

Plans and Development

Night fell and everyone began settling into their places as they normally did. Shelke joined her father in his claimed sleeping space, still rather disoriented, but recovering and not being damaged any longer. Zack and Aeris went off by themselves to find a place for some privacy, and so did several other couples or small groups, both Spirans and Gaians. Eden had acquired some more paper and sat down by the Materia to take his mind off everything that had happened in such a short time, waving to Aeris and Zack as she led the two away.

For a moment, Aeris had been tempted to stay with him, but then, she felt it better to give him a bit of time to do something intrinsically familiar to him—work on the arrays. With that decision made, she led her boyfriend through the trees towards one of the few untouched stretches of beach on the island, slipping off her shoes and socks to let the water wash over her bare feet. Zack joined her so they could play in the water for a bit, then they sat down together on the shore, leaning against one another and just sitting in quiet comfort.

Suddenly, energy flared around the young woman, and white light laced with green enveloped them before separating to give them a clear space to be with Minerva as she appeared to them. Aeris sat up straight and Zack blinked at Minerva curiously as she eyed the pair evenly for a few long moments.

Finally, she gave a small smile and a nod. _:Now that the greatest danger has passed here and you are soon to have new homes, I feel this is a time when this request would be valid. Beloved Child, you and the Dynamism are of a sort who may be able to assist me. Are you willing?:_ she asked.

"What do you need us to do, exactly?" Zack asked, head tipped to the side as he gazed at her curiously.

She gave him a small nod, then said, _:I have found and held the remains of Jeh-nova's sentience. Upon purifying those remains, I found myself to be left with a rather displeased, infant-like sentience both wounded and afraid. Rather than destroy her completely, I wish to give her one last opportunity to attempt restoration, but to do so, she must be reborn without her memory and amongst those she previously feared and despised. Her memory would later be returned to her. That left me with the question of who could possibly be her parents without treating her in a manner different from any other child of my world. Of all those in this world, even of the Spirans, I believe the two of you are the most unbiased and forgiving of her past actions.:_

"So you're saying you want us to have a baby, who will be the Calamity in human form, and to raise her?" Aeris asked in surprise. At the woman's nod, she questioned more softly, "And what will happen to her if she changes, and if she doesn't?"

 _:Should she show no changes, I will have no choice but to destroy her completely. This is the reason I wish to know if she is able to heal, as the destruction which would await her would otherwise be final. Should she change, learn, and grow, she will live out her life as one of my children on this world, and upon her death, I would welcome her to assist me in tending the world. My new companion is also willing. I very much hope you are willing, as otherwise, I would need much time to find another of the Cetra willing to join with one housing so many of her former cells before I could attempt this option. However, should you be unwilling, either of you, I shall wait until such time as another couple of similar status and ability appears,:_ Minerva explained.

Zack and Aeris traded nervous looks, but then Zack grinned and said, "There's been enough death lately, so this may really be the best way to start fixing things. I don't mind, whichever way you feel is best for yourself, Aeris. After all, as much as we're great right now—we don't know what the future will hold, so this may not even be the right time to agree to something like that."

Aeris looked between Minerva and Zack a few times before looking off into space. She then looked up at Minerva again and said, "I'm not going to be having a baby right now. Zack and I haven't been together long enough to know if this is permanent or not, so I'll offer this instead—if Zack and I are still together in a few years and we decide to have a baby, we'll take her. If Zack and I aren't together, if my new partner will be suitable, we can have another visit like this, but if not, you'll have to wait. It might still be me and in my lifetime, but it might be a different man. Right now, I hope it won't, but just to be sure. Will that be okay?"

Minerva gave her a small, fond smile. _:It will, my Beloved Child,:_ she agreed. _:Your thoughtfulness towards the situation is reassuring. We shall see how things proceed in the future, then. Rest well, both of you little children.:_ She then faded out as the white filled their vision again, and when they blinked, it cleared and they were back where they had been before she interrupted them.

"We'll name her Jenny!" Zack grinned as he suddenly hugged her.

Aeris gave a yelp and a laugh as she cried out, "Zack, stop that!" After a minute, he let her go, so she looked up at him and asked, "Jenny?"

"Yeah, short for Jenova. It's a normal enough name from Gongaga, though it would usually be short for Jennifer. She's still going to be that entity, so even if we let her know about her origins a little at a time, naming her Jenny will give her a tie to it which no one else will realize is one. Even if we and Jenny know her origins, I don't think it's a great idea to tell anyone else," the black haired man explained.

"You don't have any faith in even Angeal?" Aeris asked in surprise.

"It's not that I don't have faith in him—he's a great guy. It's just that so many people have so many bad experiences all tied to her in her previous incarnation, and the instinct to react to that will be strong. It's better for everyone if we just—leave the past there, rather than bringing it forward to be in everyone's faces all the time. Let them all heal and let go of it, then—I mean, if this works, eventually, she's going to be another Minerva, and maybe she'll be different enough, maybe even have a different name, so people will be able to accept her."

"...Zack, sometimes you truly amaze me with the leaps of logic you make. You even manage ones at Eden's level sometimes."

"Great. But does it make sense why I'd want to name her Jenny?"

"It does. If we're still together in a few years, our first-born daughter will be Jenny, then."

Zack grinned like a loon and hugged her again.

FoW

Eden was working on the arrays to fuse Materia again, and pining for Libby, who had all his reference material. Was she even on board the Omega body? That was something he didn't want to ponder too deeply, but he was still really pining for her, either way. It suddenly occurred to him that he was just missing her presence, not her records—more than once, he'd had to stop himself from reaching up to pat a head which wasn't on his shoulder, or reaching down to pat one which wasn't at his side.

"Eden!" a familiar voice suddenly cried, making him jolt and look up from his work—only for his eyes to widen as Libby jumped on him to hug him around the neck tightly.

"Speak of the devil..." he muttered as he hugged her back, then chuckled. Then he blinked and asked, "Hold on, what about your power supply? How long will it last without Stray Hope? And where did you _come_ from?"

"She was by the Mako pool, looking very lost and confused," Tseng's familiar voice said from a few feet away. When Eden looked up at him to meet his gaze, he went on, "I found three other civilians near there, as well, so pointed them in the direction of space where they'd be able to settle in. I think Minerva is actively listening to our discussions right now, since the three all seem to be people who worked in Urban Development. Or some of our Summons are telling her what they overhear us talking about. Mind if I join you for a bit?"

"Are you well enough to do that?" the blond asked him worriedly. Libby settled in his lap, and Tseng sat down nearby, arms loosely wrapped around his knees.

"I'm not particularly tired, just somewhat sore," Tseng replied in faint amusement. "I'm rather glad it'll be a good, _long_ while before I'll be able to do anything even remotely like that again."

"How long's 'a long while'?" Eden blinked.

Shrugging, the Wutain Turk replied, "A few decades. It was only such a huge display this time because I'd had over five hundred years without using my energy as a half-Summon, so a lot of it had stored itself up in my body. When it all expelled, it went a little overboard. If my mother and her discussion with Minerva were as clear as they sounded, I'd probably have to wait at least thirty years before getting a fraction of the effect I got this time—definitely not a use-all, and I'm glad of it. It's as dangerous as it is helpful."

"Or those Dragon-fiends are just a lot smarter than ours," the blond chuckled faintly. "But geez, you Gaians are super-strong, aren't you?"

Tseng gave him an amused look and replied, "We have much the same view of you, you know."

Shaking his head, Eden replied, "Genesis' Limit Break, Chaos and Zirconaide, your new Summon transformation—I can't even hold a candle to those. Really, you guys are something else. It's kinda awesome, though. I don't stand out as much that way."

"Says the man who can turn Mako in someone's bloodstream into Materia shards at will," the Wutain replied in dry amusement.

Eden chuckled. "Touché."

"Is this a private discussion, or may I join you?" a new, though familiar, voice cut in to ask. Both Turks looked up to see Genesis there, his gaze amused and his stance showing exhaustion.

With a motion, Tseng invited, "It's not 'between Turks', if that's what you mean, so feel free. I just don't want to go back to my room or to sleep yet. By the way, how _is_ Shelke doing?"

"Starting to orient herself," Genesis said as he sat beside Eden and picked up his papers. "She should be in a better state when she wakes in the morning, especially if she wakes with our father close at hand. I'm tired, but my mind isn't ready to quit—I've been running too high for too long, you know? Coming back down isn't an easy task right now."

"That's kinda how I feel, but for different reasons," Eden sighed.

There was a pause in the discussion, then the red haired man asked, "Eden, is she going to expect you to—kill someone to get an Aeon?" Tseng stared at the two in shocked horror, then saw Eden shake his head as Genesis quirked a brow in question. "She's not making you do it?"

"That's not how it works," the blond Turk replied. "Fayth...They stay here because they have a strong enough desire to do so, not because someone else forces them to. Two of Yuna's Summons died and became fayth—and Aeons by extension—without even using the ritual, and a third one did the same for a different Summoner originally. The ritual makes a fully willing decision easier to accomplish, and while it means the new fayth is going to be created at the cost of that person's life ending, it's only because they've made the choice and believe in their desire to go on living so strongly that they even surpass the unsent."

"If they both need a reason or a purpose to stay, aren't they the same thing?" Tseng asked with a small frown.

Shaking his head in faint amusement, Eden sighed and said, "It was one of Yuna's Summons who told me what the difference between the unsent and the fayth is. He had been a Summoner in his life, so he knew how to explain it so I'd be able to grasp what he was getting at. The unsent stay because they made a promise or left something undone—they stay because they have _regrets_. The fayth stay because they have dreams and desires, things they want to see and do, or people they want to see move forward—they stay because they _want to be here_. An unsent like Auron can only become a fayth by casting aside his regrets and choosing to stay in this living world because he _wants_ to."

Both other men stared at him in shock, then started as a man said from behind Eden, "That would be correct. And I've realized I _can_ stay just because I _want_ to—Hana has shown me the world truly has changed, and I _want_ to see where the people alive now will take it. She's a worthy one to begin with." The three all turned to stare up at Auron, whose gaze was focused on Eden. "You still have trouble with someone willingly ending their own _physical_ life."

With a small sigh, the blond replied, "It's hard for me not to balk at that. But I'm starting to realize Aeons aren't actually dying—they're effectively becoming immortal."

"That's true, to an extent," Auron agreed. "But it's not actually a common thing, either. Since your Minerva doesn't plan to remove the functions allowing unsent and fayth—Aeons—to exist, that just reinforces the requirement for one's own will to be strong enough to overcome death. Be it regrets or a desire to stay, both states aren't common and will never be common—you just have the luck to meet more than your share of both."

Eden snorted, and Tseng said flatly, "Yes, Eden _does_ seem to have that kind of luck. And lately, he drags us along for the ride with him." The Wutain paused, then asked, "But are you going to need to create an Aeon, Eden?"

He gave his head a shake. "She won't make me create one, but she _will_ teach me how, so if someone wants to become one for me, I'll be able to respect and honor their decision. And it just might happen, too, but I sure don't want to rush it."

"Will you ever actually qualify as more than an apprentice if you don't have one?" Genesis asked with a small frown.

"He already filled the requirement," Auron replied.

"Because of my brother?" the blond Turk asked in a bitter tone.

"No," the man replied, causing all three to look at him in confusion. "Didn't Yuna tell you?" When the blond shook his head, Auron sighed faintly and said, "You told her about the 'Summon Materia' you had created which hadn't previously existed. More than one of them fell under that category, and I've seen Carbuncle's abilities and view of the world personally. She assessed that, while the method was different, it was just as valid of a creation of a Summon as our form of creating Aeons. You already have two of them at your side, so you already _have_ the required First Summon."

The words caused the younger man to frown faintly in thought as he recalled his discussions with her, then murmured, "...Come to think of it, she _did_ say my Summons were close enough to qualify, hence why she wouldn't force me to create an Aeon, but I didn't realize she literally meant I'd fulfilled the requirement..." Then, he blinked and looked up at Auron in amusement as he said, "But that means I've actually created dozens of them, because even if all but one were Unicorn Summons, I still created tons of Unicorns all at once."

For a moment, Auron just eyed him evenly, then asked, "What does Unicorn do?"

"Heals status effects."

"You like protective Summons."

"No, I like protecting people, and those people influenced the energies to create Carbuncle and Unicorn, one because she needed the protection, and the other because she was a doctor by training and trade."

"...Did you just say human wills influenced the creation of those beings?"

"Uh...Yeah..." Eden gaped in sudden realization. "I _really did_ effectively create Aeons..."

The older man chuckled, then said, "Hence why Yuna qualified them. Good luck in the remainder of your lessons, then." He gave the three a nod and walked away—and it was only then when they realized he was emitting a very faint glow.

"...Is he _glowing_?" Genesis blinked.

"...Maybe that's a sign that he's transitioning to a fayth?" Eden asked in reply.

Tseng chuckled and looked at the papers Genesis held, asking, "Can I safely say the two of you are going to start getting 'array technical' to unwind?"

They blinked at him, looked at one another, then looked at the same papers he'd just been looking at, then looked back at him and said in unison, "Yes."

He gave an amused snort, then pushed himself up and said, "Have fun, then. I'm going to have a look at those stone pillars they've been setting up over by the Rock."

Once he'd moved away from them, Genesis asked, "This is your fusion project?"

"Yeah," Eden agreed. "I was trying to find the array combination needed to stop opposing elements from reacting negatively to one another in the shard, like Fire and Ice or Lightning and Earth. And how to work the doubling up of a single element to create stronger forms of the existing spells."

"Does Libby have what you've already tried stored?"

"She does. Librarian, can you show us the Fusion Materia data, please?"

Despite how quietly he'd said her name, she perked right up and hopped to the ground in front of him as she cheerfully agreed, "Of course! Here you go!" The projections appeared in front of them, and Genesis and Eden both blinked at the smoother flow of the system, even as Libby, ears twitching, said in a nervous tone, "I don't remember that being quite like that before..."

"Do you have a self-diagnosis function, Libby?" the red haired man asked her.

"Yes. Eden, should I run it?" the little robot asked.

"Yes—I also need to know how your power supply is doing," the Turk agreed.

She was silent for several moments, her ears and tail twitching methodically, then announced, "My program specifications had been adapted to follow array energy flows similar to a Carbuncle Summon, and my power supply pack has been adapted to retain functionality independent of any outside source. I suppose it would be a little like having been injured and being healed from the injury?"

Both young men stared at her in shock before Eden asked, "And that somehow happened while you were inside the Omega body?"

"Just like my energy wing suddenly showing as energy coalesced in that shape," Genesis blinked, then looked at the blond. "And that hole in your leg being properly healed. Minerva was fixing all of the sentient beings she took with her...And Libby qualified as 'sentient', so Minerva 'fixed' her, too."

"...Reeve is going to have kittens. Very happy ones," the younger, stunned man muttered.

"I agree with you there," the older of the two replied. "Since it seems nothing's wrong, let's get to work. Now, while we waited for Libby's self-diagnosis, I was still examining the projected arrays, and—these are the ones for opposing compatibility, right?"

"Yeah, that's what always comes up first," Eden agreed, turning his mind to the arrays after giving Libby's head a fond pat.

"Okay, so the one thing I've noticed you _haven't_ done is practically the first thing I learned when I realized I couldn't feasibly ignore the Ice Materia—some situations and enemies require it. But, I also can't let go of my Fire, so I have a special attack I use at times which forces the Ice and Fire spells into the same space without interacting with one another until I trigger it—sort of like setting off a remote-control bomb, but magical. The array combination I use has four sub-arrays which specify that the energies of the two types of spells remain in stasis until I activate one, or both, and the one not being activated will remain in stasis."

"...You can put pure energy into stasis?" the blond blinked and stared.

Genesis gave him an amused look and used his finger to draw the four sub-arrays into the sand. "These are what you need," he said when he was done. "Maybe some tweaking to make them more versatile, but otherwise, I _know_ they work. So, the next issue is the spell levels." He paused and sat back as he assessed the initial attempt in array form Eden had made at it. Then, he mused, "If I compare the elemental Materia and Contain, I would say there's a good chance Flare is the maximum strength a spell can be made, and Materia work in threes generally.

"By the logic of the one to three, then the jump to the Contain spells, which also offer a gradual increase in strength, I could surmise there would be a fourth and fifth level spell between three and the spell Freeze, which would be a sixth level spell, followed by a seventh, eighth, and ninth. I'll hazard a guess and say you could combine three Mastered Materia of the elemental sort and push them all to a maximum level nine. I don't know about other types, but some of them would probably be capped where they're at—Shield, Revive, Full Cure. I don't think those can actually feasibly get stronger. How effect spells would get 'stronger', anyway, we'd have to try to find out. Shall we start working, then?"

"Yeah, sounds good. If your arrays really work on pure energy, you've just saved me a whole lot of time, and how you've assessed the spell levels makes sense, too. Let's see what we come out to by the time we're tired," Eden agreed with an amused smile. "I know of three modifications we'll need to make to these to make them non-specific to any particular element combination, so that's probably the best place to start. If we get a success, we can move to figuring out the elemental spell levels."

With that, the two worked through some array modifications which began from Genesis' base set. They had to try four times before getting Fire and Ice to merge under terms where the two weren't being specified as targets for the stasis, but once they had, they could have Libby switch array sets to work on the increased spell levels. The first time they tried that, the explosion was rather loud and drew most of the camp to them. When everyone realized what had happened, most returned to bed with much annoyance at being woken in the middle of the night because of someone's experiment.

At the same time, however, the pair gained a few extra hands and minds—some amongst the Spirans who knew magic, like Yuna and Hana, joined their work, and a few other Gaians from Genesis' SOLDIER unit, like Kunzel, also opted to join them. The next time they made the attempt, it splintered quietly.

"Maybe we're looking at it the wrong way from the start," Hana suddenly offered, making the others look at her in confusion. "Well, we seem to have forgotten to use some basic math, I think. If you start with an arrangement of three spells, one, two, and three, and you're trying to add three more spells to that, what are you going to come out with? If you add one and one, you get two, which already exists. If you add one and two, you get three, which already exists. If you add one and three, you get four, which gets added to the list of spells the Materia is accessing. Then if you add two and one—again, the result already exists. So does adding two and two, because four now exists. The only new spell comes from adding two and three, for five."

She paused, then went on, "I think we're over-taxing the process by trying to make it add together every combination, and to try to remove the ones which already exist. If we simplify the equation, it might make more sense to target the third level elemental spell to add to each of the others—three plus one is four, a new spell, three plus two is five, a new spell, and three plus three is six, a new spell. Then, if you're trying to make it go to nine, specify the third Materia's level three spell be added to four, five, and six, and you'll get three new spells, seven, eight, and nine. Problem solved, and no duplicates, right?"

Everyone gaped at her for a few moments, then Eden and Genesis both muttered, "That just might work, too." They immediately began re-working their arrays, and made another attempt to fuse the Materia.

And sure enough, Hana's method turned out to be successful.

Both Eden and Genesis were upset with themselves for missing something so obvious, but by then, they had sufficiently unwound enough to call it quits and head to bed, so everyone else also returned to their own rest. Despite all of the blond's misgivings, Eden felt good about the progress he'd made, and was actually able to get some sleep.


	58. Insert: Materia Fusion Paper

**A/N:** Warning! Don't read this if you don't like reading a bunch of scientific details and calculations! It won't impact the story—this is mainly for those readers who like to know hows and whys of the way things (Materia and Fusion Materia in this case) function. If you DO read it, however, and notice a discrepancy in logic or functionality, let me know!

There may be a few Materia names readers won't recognize—those WILL turn up later if they haven't already. Also keep in mind that not quite all of these things have been experimented with in the story yet, but they will be once the appropriate Materia are available.

Also, any 'original percentages' of boosts and deficiencies I used were based on the Magic Materia data found on the FFVII wikia page (in other words, these are the main game originals). My fusion paper started playing with them. However, damage-related percentages are my own calculations in simplified form to account for several things going on with the Materia, and are actually at least partly 'educated guess-work'.

A note on damage calculations—for simplicity's sake, I picked a well-known and familiar energy (centigrade, more commonly known as Celsius) to base the calculations on, regardless of the actual energy something would be based on (Watts or Volts for Lightning, for example). In other words, a centigrade number for anything not Fire is just a fill-in for the approximate energy output of the actual energy source.

Materia Fusion Paper

 **Important Materia functionality notes (key points leading to Fusion):**

There are five types of Materia:

Magic (green): functional spells, all spells accessible by Mastery, causes boosts and deficiencies

Command (yellow): physical skill modification, only highest level skill available by Mastery, causes boosts and deficiencies

Support (blue): influences paired Materia, increases percentage of effect activation by Mastery, no boosts or deficiencies

Independent (purple): influences user, increases duration of effect by Mastery, no boosts or deficiencies (other than through purpose of Materia)

Summon (red): Summons beings to assist, causes boosts and deficiencies

Minerva requested through Aeris that Summon Materia not be returned to her, and by extension, that they not be risked in the Fusion Materia experiments—if they aren't tested, they can't be used as parts of the final results. Summons are actual sentient beings, not largely inanimate objects, and so will remain outside the scope of the Fusion Materia experiments unless something happens which causes Minerva or the Summons to request their inclusion. This would most likely only happen either in a dire circumstance or once the method of Fusion has been properly worked out. Unique Materia, such as the shards of Zirconaide, are also exempt.

The Red Huge Materia was a creation of the Lifestream directly regardless of developing in a Reactor, and is the only real instance of Summons being merged in some way—but it hasn't developed yet. As such, the remainder of this will address the other four types of Materia, but not Summon Materia, in or out of Fusion.

 _Basics of standard Materia (Minerva's creations):_

All Materia function based on a series of interlocking arrays which give it form, functionality, and limits, each series having a base array and no less than twenty sub-arrays. The base array determines what the Materia is for (Fire, Cure, Sense, Added Effect, etc.) while the sub-arrays determine all aspects of functionality, usage, duration, and limitations on usage. When a Materia has multiple levels of the same 'spell', several arrays which are applicable to all of them will be shared across the board. Any Materia with an effect which requires a target is able to target objects besides 'an enemy' or 'an ally', but targeting walls, the ground, plants, or so on, is more difficult than the basic function of targeting a person, monster, or animal in one's immediate surroundings.

Because Materia function based on a series of 'lines' and 'text' which are equivalent to scientific and mathematical equations and to computer code respectively, their operation rules are functional scientific and mathematical formulae. Modifying those formulae requires a knowledge of the language and coding of the 'computer codes' in order to make changes to them, thereby changing aspects of spell usage. In most cases, due to the complexity of the arrays, only so many modifications can be made to Materia spells and functions, and most such changes need to made repeatedly with each such usage.

All 'spells' in Magic and Command Materia which have damage or healing statistics operate based on a mathematical formula. Using Fire Materia as the example:

Fire = 60ºC + 20% caster's max energy level

Fire 2 = 60ºC + 30% caster's max energy level

Fire 3 = 60ºC + 40% caster's max energy level

Flare = 120ºC + 100% caster's max energy level*

*(this discrepancy will be explained in the Fusion Materia section)

While the energy variant used to determine output in place of centigrade would vary from Materia to Materia, it produces a similar quantity output. During casting, a failed result often is caused by using too little (it fizzles out) or too much (it explodes, or rebounds) of the caster's own energy. Spells with unusual uses, such as Demi, Regen or Sleepel, follow differing rules.

Over-time damage and healing spells also have statistics similar to standard spell damage, but modified by a different percentage (example is Poison Materia and Regen):

Bio = 10% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 2 = 15% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 3 = 20% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Regen = 15% target's max health level + duration 2 minutes

Gravity Materia (Demi spells) have a restriction generally preventing death from its use on a healthy target, as it does a percentage of damage based on its growth:

Demi = 1/4 target's health—pressure of gravity at target's location

Demi 2 = 1/2 target's health—pressure of gravity at target's location

Demi 3 = 7/8 target's health—pressure of gravity at target's location

Spells which do no damage, such as Sleepel or Berserk, have no damage ratio or calculation, but have durations (caster's death for most) and target resistance components. Their boosts and deficiency values have 3 possible options: 2%, 5%, and 10%, both ways, or a specific value which would be deducted from a whole, ranging from 1 to 8, mainly falling between 1 and 4. Generally, only the percentages of boosts and deficiencies will be discussed, as the specific values would change in accordance with them. Keep in mind that these values are all a number to explain the overall effect, not a literal 'accurate number' for any boosts or deficiencies.

As a general rule, spells must either remain 'attached' to their caster to siphon energy to remain active for an extended time (there are very few exceptions) or activate _**at**_ the target location. In most casts, there is no 'distance' for the spell to travel because the target location is where the spell forms, making them very difficult to dodge—magic resistance is useful to develop for this reason—but also very short-lived. A weak caster's maximum range will be approximately 20 feet from their location while maximum range for others will vary by casting ability. The maximum recorded distance is visual range of over 100 feet, but most fall between 20 and 40 feet.

Exceptionally powerful casters are able to modify their spells to 'travel' the distance between them and their target, this generally only being useful for showing off or as a distraction (Genesis does this sort of thing _a lot_ ). Rare spells are designed with a 'travel distance' by nature, and some spells influenced by the All Support Materia may gain a 'travel distance' by being used against multiple opponents; however, those are both non-standard spells and Materia combinations.

 **Fusion Materia formation and functionality notes:**

This is fusion of both physical form and energy, causing the basic free-hand arrays to have many similarities to the transmutation arrays needed for the creation of chimeras. The biggest difference in the Fusion Materia creation arrays is that they aren't classified as human transmutation arrays and don't include any elements related to living beings or souls.

Un-Mastered Materia have empty space which is difficult to assess due to instability and wild energy flows. On the assumption that it would be easier to fuse stable items rather than unstable ones, Mastered Materia would need to be used to create Fusion Materia with both variability and functionality. Trials using un-Mastered Materia resulted in the shattering of the result, but shattering the Materia also caused the energy in it to die without returning to the Lifestream. Mastered Materia which shattered, however, retained their energy in the resulting dust, meaning they were still 'viable' products.

 _Based on Shinra's fusion Materia:_

Shinra's fusion of Materia truly is primitive compared to what the arrays would allow, as shown in the Bolt Blade created by Shinra versus the one created using Shinra's method with slight alchemic modification versus the one created using pure alchemy and scientific method.

Shinra's: Bolt Blade 2, automatic and isolated function, no growth, original Materia fuse into the new result and can't be used for anything else

Modified Shinra method: Bolt Blade with growth from 1st to 2nd to 3rd, original Materia fuse into the new result and can't be used for anything else

Alchemy: Bolt of any level and Bolt Blade of any level (chosen by caster), no growth, original Materia fuse into the new result and can't be used for anything else

In normal circumstances, Bolt Blade via Shinra's method would be an Independent Materia which has a set action and acts automatically, making it non-interactive. In both other cases, the resulting Materia is interactive, not automatic (this negates both Support and Independent-type Materia classification). In the case of the modified Shinra method, the Bolt Blade function when interactive becomes a Command because this ends up being a singular item in which the weaker level will be replaced with a stronger level as it grows (Mug replaces Steal, for example). Modified Shinra method used correctly gains the ability for growth, and this form of Materia is a viable and reproducing form, making further experimentation worth pursuing.

With alchemy, the resulting form reverts to a modified Magic Materia, as Bolt Blade itself effectively becomes a spell of a level chosen by the caster as well as allowing standard casting of the Bolt spell. It is Mastered and stable by default, making it possible to further combine it with other Materia, but preventing it from growth and reproduction.

While primitive trials were successful in general idea, there was the question of regaining access to the point of the Elemental Blade combination, leading to further experimentation with an ability to pre-set an automatic level of Bolt Blade to use. This combination creates a Mastered Materia of swirling, mixed colors, green and blue, and operates on the basis that the first cast of Bolt Blade sets the automatic level for the next hour, while still allowing conscious choice of a different level during that time. It also allows no further growth.

This format of Fusion is specific to increasing the effectiveness of un-related Materia type combinations, generally meaning Magic, Command, and Support Materia in any and all useful formats. While that would normally exclude Independent Materia as those don't react with other Materia, Stealth, Long-Range Attack, and Item Boost had unusual results from being fused with other Materia.

Long-Range Attack could be fused with several Command Materia (Steal, Slash-All, Sense, Mime, Deathblow, and Aerial Attack), several Support Materia (Steal as Well, All, Counter, Health Absorb, and Magic Absorb), and the results of the three other types of Fusion already noted in the Bolt Blade examples above. The usual result of this tended to extend the normal range of effect of the Command, Support, or Fusion, but also meant the combination would bypass enemy defenses and resistances. In the case of some, such as Counter, it would allow the attack to strike an opponent behind the one whose blow activated Counter. In the case of others, like Mime, the user would gain the option of using Mime to copy a distant enemy's attack to use on current opponents. These would appear as swirling purple and blue or yellow or 'Fusion color'.

Item Boost paired with effect and healing-type Materia caused items used by the person to add effects to the item's usage. The combination is very delicate and not generally to be used 'for fun', because having a Bio-Boost would cause a Hi-Potion to also poison the target. Alternately, in the hands of someone who knew very well what they were doing with those combinations, it could be a very useful and subtle way of bypassing an enemy's defenses (in multiple ways) to damage them without them realizing it happened. These show as swirling purple and green.

Stealth combined with Magic, Command, or the above-noted Fusion Materia caused preemptive strikes to gain an automatic initial strike of whatever it was combined with. It also maintained the ability for the fused skills or magics to be used independently in battle after the initial attack, and granted a 'silence' factor to the skills or magics it was fused with. That is, when casting Fire, the spell would create a noise of flames as it activated, but fused with Stealth, the flame noise would be negated without any of the damage being lost. These would appear as swirling purple and green or yellow or 'Fusion color'.

In all of these cases, boosts and deficiencies are added together as is, but any costs in casting or use are reduced somewhat while they otherwise mainly do the same damage with the same functionality as normal. Normally, only one component, the Magic or Command one, would have any boosts or deficiencies, leaving them as they are with no change from the Magic or Command itself when slotted.

 _Materia level/ability boosting:_

In addition to fusion of varying shards, there was the question of strengthening existing Materia with the intent to level them up higher than their third, or fourth in some cases, level. It was possible through a system of fusing a Mastered Materia shard to another of the same Materia, though the maximum level of any one spell is nine. An initial trial earned Ice 4, Ice 5, and Ice 6 (also known as Freeze) from fusing the Ice 3 spell into the target Ice Materia, and showed that the resulting shard was not Mastered, making it capable of growth, Mastering, and reproduction.

Future trials revealed two methods of creating further levels, up to 9, all requiring Mastered Materia:

Multi-stage fusion method:

1) Target Materia (spell levels 1-3) + secondary Materia spell level 3 = Materia spells 4, 5, and 6 (4-6)

2) Target Materia (spell levels 4-6) + secondary Materia spell level 3 = Materia spells 7, 8, and 9 (7-9)

3) Materia 1-3 + Materia 4-6 + Materia 7-9 = Mega spell Materia (levels 1-9)

Simplified Fusion Method:

Spell Materia 1-3 + secondary Materia spell level 3 + third Materia spell level 3 = Mega spell Materia (levels 1-9)

Both methods allow all levels of a spell from 1 to 9 to appear on the same Materia shard, allowing a caster to boost the one shard to its maximum potential and produce a viable baby at Mastering. Boosted Materia in this vein are, in fact, the replacement for basic spells. Like with variants of Shinra's Fusion method, any Materia used in this form of Fusion merged into the new product and could not be reused. It was also possible to fuse only the 1-3 and 4-6 spell level Materia to create a Materia with spells 1-6 on it. An attempt at creating a 4-9 spell level Materia failed, however.

This clearly indicates that Minerva herself had developed spells up to a ninth level of power and ability, and the basic system is, in fact, fully developed while she chose to only allow the tangible creation of certain levels of Materia. Contain, with its much-boosted spells, held the key to that fact from the start. The full list of statistics for such spells:

Fire/Ice/Bolt/Quake/Cure/etc. = 60ºC + 20% caster's max energy level

Fire 2/Ice 2/Bolt 2/Quake 2/Cure 2/etc. = 60ºC + 30% caster's max energy level

Fire 3/Ice 3/Bolt 3/Quake 3/Cure 3/etc. = 60ºC + 40% caster's max energy level

Fire 4/Ice 4/Bolt 4/Quake 4/Cure 4/etc. = 90ºC + 50% caster's max energy level

Fire 5/Ice 5/Bolt 5/Quake 5/Cure 5/etc. = 90ºC + 60% caster's max energy level

Fire 6/Ice 6 (Freeze)/Bolt 6/Quake 6/Cure 6/etc. = 90ºC + 70% caster's max energy level

Fire 7/Ice 7/Bolt 7/Quake 7 (Break)/Cure 7/etc. = 120ºC + 80% caster's max energy level

Fire 8/Ice 8/Bolt 8 (Tornado)/Quake 8/Cure 8/etc. = 120ºC + 90% caster's max energy level

Fire 9 (Flare)/Ice 9/Bolt 9/Quake 9/Cure 9 (healing ratio of Full Cure)/etc. = 120ºC + 100% caster's max energy level

The effect is similar with over-time damage spells:

Bio = 10% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 2 = 15% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 3 = 20% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 4 = 25% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 5 = 30% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 6 = 35% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 7 = 40% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 8 = 45% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Bio 9 = 50% target's max health level + permanent effect status

Regen = 15% target's max health level + duration 2 minutes

Regen 2 = 30% target's max health level + duration 2 minutes

Regen 3 = 45% target's max health level + duration 2 minutes

The effects of Gravity Materia boosted this way were singularly unique:

Demi = 1/4 target's health—pressure of gravity at target's location

Demi 2 = 1/2 target's health—pressure of gravity at target's location

Demi 3 = 7/8 target's health—pressure of gravity at target's location

Demi 4 = 1/4 target's health—produces 'drag' on surroundings (slows movement speed)

Demi 5 = 1/2 target's health—produces 'drag' on surroundings (slows movement speed)

Demi 6 = 7/8 target's health—produces 'drag' on surroundings (slows movement speed)

Demi 7 = 1/4 target's health—forces all enemies in range into its core damage zone/unavoidable*

Demi 8 = 1/2 target's health—forces all enemies in range into its core damage zone/unavoidable*

Demi 9 = 7/8 target's health—forces all enemies in range into its core damage zone/unavoidable*

*(This functionality originated from the effect of Gravity Materia in FFVII: Before Crisis.)

Comet, with only two levels, boosts only to Comet 6, which produces damage of about 150ºC plus 100% of maximum energy at its highest level. Most of the Materia falling in this category with all levels on the same shard have a scaled cost, boost, and deficiency number set which moderates them to no higher than 10% when Mastered and slotted. That means it becomes more practical to have the single shard with all levels of the spells than it is to have an independent shard for each 1-3 (for basic elements: 2%), 4-6 (for basic elements: 5%), and 7-9 (for basic elements: 10%).

Effect-type Materia produce three general results from being fused: a boost in duration, a boost in 'bypass' ability, or a combination of the two.

Materia receiving a boost in duration:

Barrier

Mirage

Fly

Float

Materia bypassing immunity defenses or resisting removal from an ally:

Destruct

Mystify

Transform

Exit

Cleanse

Materia which do both of the above depending on the spell:

Time

Seal

Rather than any of the above, the Heal Materia increases effectiveness of spells or range of status ailments they cure.

Typically, these effects would leave all other statistics (costs, boosts, deficiencies, etc.) as they are, and cannot be boosted beyond two shards fused together. Like the multi-level spell Materia, these also have the benefit of producing a viable Materia able to grow to Mastery and reproduce. For all such shards, the amount of energy needed for Mastering is much increased, making them largely impractical for quick Mastering to be broken down and returned to the Planet.

Contain, Ultima, Shield, Full Cure, and Revive have no higher spells (cannot be combined with others of their kind). Contain is already boosted levels of the spells which can't be made stronger without violating Minerva's rules, and the only difference between Cure 9 and Full Cure is how Full Cure also casts Esuna, placing it in the same category as Contain. Ultima, Shield, and Revive are simply maximum boosted spells with no current lower levels—they fall under the category of level 9 spells, with Life being a level 5 spell equivalent and Life 2 being a level 9 spell equivalent.

Under this category of Fusion, the Materia costs, boosts, and deficiencies normalize to the requirements of the most powerful spell in the list, and the stats don't change as the Materia grows and more spells become available. A Materia with all nine levels on it from the start can therefore only be used by someone with large magical and physical reserves, making it viable and necessary to keep other variants of the Materia handy (1-3, 1-6, 4-6, 7-9).

Similar principles apply to Command Materia, with the noted exceptions of Enemy Skill and Steal. Independent and Support Materia could not be combined with one another in this way, being that they are all singular skills and behave much the way a level 9 equivalent spell does in attempts at fusing them. That is, the attempted fusion would either shut down mid-fusion (this would result in a twisted mass of useless energized rock) or destroy the Materia being fused, creating more Materia dust (viable version).

As a side note: the 'useless energized rock' could be returned to the Planet as Lifestream energy, but had no use besides that.

On the other hand, Command Materia could also be split to form two separate Materia, one solely for each Command available on the Materia if more than one existed. One prime example would be Steal, with both Steal and Mug. For someone using s/Stealth and wanting to escape undetected, they may prefer simply to Steal from an opponent rather than damage them at the same time, but by Steal's natural growth, reaching its second level replaces Steal with Mug, leaving no choice but to damage. By separating Steal and Mug into two different Command Materia, both still capable of growth, Steal would remain as is and still grow two levels before Mastering and producing a baby, while Mug would need to grow one level before becoming accessible:

Steal (original version): Steal, Mug, Mastery

Steal (modified solo): Steal, (blank), Mastery

Mug (modified solo): (blank), Mug, Mastery

 _Alchemy Fusion of assorted Materia for use and accessibility:_

In theory, by the empty space left in Mastered Materia, many shards should be able to be fused into one to be used as is out of one shard. With Summon Materia currently excluded, that would leave Magic, Command, Support, and Independent Materia with the potential for merging. Some Materia have too many of their own data requirements to merge with many others, or to merge at all. Notably, Enemy Skill, Shapeshift, and Cleanse are excluded completely from merging at any time.

By what has been discussed to this point, one key note is that Fusion of this type involves shards with some sort of commonality, meaning it can be assumed that the more commonalities there are between shards, the more of them are able to be merged. In the case of Magic and Command Materia, merging all of each type with the rest of its type will occur with two possible variants. Given the levels of skills introduced by merging two/three of one shard together (eg. Fire up to 9 or Cure up to 9), a fused Materia could be made with either the original base set (the 1-3 basics) Mastered or the properly fused set (1-9) Mastered.

In the latter case, there would be next to no space remaining in the 'Mega-Master Magic/Command Materia', causing the fusion to be very delicate and prone to failure if not done _just so_. The spell Full Cure will replace Cure 9. With Command Materia, by using separated skills (eg. Steal and Mug), the two are able to remain as independent skills and the user will be able to choose either of them. Most trial cases were done using easy-to-obtain and prolific Materia, such as the base elements, because those allowed perfection of the technique on something expendable before trying it with much rarer Materia.

One fear of merging many shards into one was that the boosts and deficiencies would sky-rocket exponentially. Instead, they were being reduced by around half of the original combined total of wearing each independently.

Five elements (basic 1-3) example:

As individual shards: Fire (2%) + Ice (2%) + Lightning (2%) + Earth (2%) + Gravity (5%) = 13%

In one shard: Fire (1%), Ice (1%), Lightning (1%), Earth (1%), Gravity (2%) = 6%

Mega-elements (1-9) example:

As individual shards: Fire (10%) + Ice (10%) + Lightning (10%) + Earth (10%) + Gravity (10%) = 50%

In one shard: Fire (4%), Ice (4%), Lightning (4%), Earth (4%), Gravity (5%) = 21%

Not only did the original Mastered Materia remain intact in addition to producing a Master or Mega-Master Materia^, but further experiments with combinations showed the percentages decreasing until they began running in reverse—until all Magic/Command Materia shards it was possible to merge hit 0 and stayed there. There were neither increases nor decreases in any of a person's natural abilities with a Master Magic or Command Materia* (or the Mega versions of those) when slotted.

*(It should be noted that, while Summon Materia are not discussed here, Shinra's fusion method (and associated forms) does not apply to them, compounding of them is impossible (there won't be any Shiva 3's or 9's!), and fusion of the various Summons functions on the same principles as Magic and Command Materia. This includes associated boosts and deficiencies, both independently and as 'Master Summon' Materia. It should be noted that 4 extremely powerful Summons produce a deficiency of 10% in one regard while creating a boost of 15% or 20% in the other, while other status boosts average out to 4 or 8. Any "additional" (created by author) Summons will have stats no higher than the average 10% and 2.)

Further testing on that peculiarity revealed that the more Materia were merged into one, the 'closer' they became to Minerva (or to balance, more accurately), causing arrays to begin imprinting in them which reduced or removed any strain on the caster. Any 'weight' which would generally come from using too many Materia at once was negated by this effect, allowing virtually anyone to cast anything from such a Master Materia, energy provided—the spells all still have casting costs and all other functions as normal. This would indicate a state of balance, a state both more required and more achievable the more of the same type of Materia are fused.

Support Materia could not all be fused into one, but some could be fused in twos, threes, or fours, if the correct ones were merged. All and Steal as Well easily merged with one another and with any or all other shards, both as the two separately (or independently) and as the two fused. Those could also be merged with anything except Master and Mega-Master Materia, Enemy Skill, Shapeshift, and Cleanse. Outside those, some pairs seemed to be established:

Magic Turbo + Quadra Magic

Counter + Added Cut

Elemental + Added Effect

Health Absorb + Magic Absorb

When merged, they would create a reduction in the percentage boosts and deficiencies required to function, and could be combined with the appropriate other Materia, both in slots or in further fusions. For example, a fusion of Elemental, All, and Steal as Well could be fused into a Five Elements Materia, then slotted paired with Ultima, and Ultima would gain the effects of Elemental, All, and Steal as Well just as much as Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, and Gravity would. Given the variability of being able to combine nearly anything in any combination or quantity alchemic fusion allows, many multiples of such combinations based on individual wants and needs would be possible. Many of these would resemble swirling blue with whatever other Materia color they had been fused with (green, yellow, or a combination).

However, there are limits to how many Fusion Materia can be fused before the result will revert to Materia dust or a useless energized rock. Generally, two created Fusions can be fused together or fused with other non-Fusion Materia, but the result of trying to fuse it again after that or to fuse it with more than one other Fusion Materia is the above-noted, assuming it doesn't rebound and explode. Dust of this sort, while viable for returning energy to the Planet, is often too 'confused' to be applied elsewhere for other purposes, though it can also function as a back-up power supply in some types of Mako generators.

In this form of fusion, however, Independent Materia have only two possible combinations, one of which creates a mixed Command and Independent Materia which is colored in swirls of both yellow and purple. The above-noted combination is Chocobo Lure, Enemy Lure, and Enemy Away, which only retain their functions after merging by then having one of the three functions chosen, much the way a Command would be. The only other possible option for fusion of Independent Materia with any other Independent Materia is the fusion of the 'Plus' Materia, Speed Plus, Magic Plus, Health Plus, Luck Plus, Guard Plus, and Strength Plus.

The reason for this is that every one of these Materia have so many sub-arrays that their ability to be merged with one another is all but negated, and their ability to merge with other types of Materia with much lower requirements is limited. The Lures and Away are similar in enough of their sub-array requirements to reduce the collective data they require to function, and similarly, all of the 'Plus' Materia are nearly identical with only minor differences, allowing them to share most of their sub-arrays. Doing so negates them from fusing with other things. In the case of the 'Pluses', however, they have the variability of being able to be merged in different combinations—someone needing extra Luck, Strength, and Guard could have a Materia with only those three fused in it.

All of the Fusions falling into this last category are Mastered and cannot earn growth to reproduce, so must be created by fusing other shards. The one benefit to using this method is that, once perfected so original Materia used in the Fusion aren't being destroyed, the original set remains undamaged. The originals used in the Fusion also imprint arrays indicating they've already been used so can't be used again, an effect which happens because a portion of their energy (generally, the excess between its highest level ability and its Mastered state) was taken with the alchemic array in order to form the body of the new Materia shard. This creates a requirement for a cycle and repeated new input of new Materia to create new Fusions or repeats of old ones.

End Paper

 **Notes:**

^'Master Materia' obtained from Huge Materia have boosts and deficiencies of 0% and give no other stats (go ahead and check the wikia!), so this was a fact needing explanation.


	59. 55-Ritual of the Fayth

**A/N: If you haven't already heard the Hymn of the Fayth, please go on Youtube** (or another similar site) and **search for "FFX Hymn of the Fayth"** so you can hear it for yourself! No, there are really no instruments included in it.

FYI, from almost the first moment I saw Auron, I had already allocated him to a particular Summon, because it suits him (at least, I think it does). This only worked out so well because I realized I now had an excuse to make him into that Summon—he wouldn't have been in the story otherwise.

Ritual of the Fayth

The sun was barely up the next morning when Yuna shook Eden awake. "Come on, we have things to prepare for the ritual, Eden," she told him in faint amusement as he glared sleepily at her.

"I thought everything was prepared already?" he asked, yawning and starting to pull the covers back up.

Yuna tugged the covers right off the bed, causing him to sit up and glower furiously at her, so she said, "Yes, the physical objects and the location are prepared. However, _we_ are not."

"Aren't we? You already instructed me on my part in the ritual," the blond pointed out, still glowering. Libby hopped onto his shoulder.

"First, you need your apprentice's earring, then all of us who will be in the circle need to participate in a cleansing bath," she told him, dangling the red earring in front of him. "If you were going to take an existing Aeon, the bath wouldn't be necessary, but this cleansing is _important_ for the complete ritual."

"Why?" he blinked, eyes showing distaste as he eyed the earring. "I mean—why didn't you tell me about this cleansing before, and why do we need to do it?"

"Do you have any idea how much I'm doing right now, Eden?" Yuna asked him dryly, making a motion with the hand holding the earring to indicate he should take it. "You, Hana, your people's arrival, the fallen Shadowterra, Sanni, my lessons with Hikari, the ritual, making this, your newly-appeared land mass, my duties as a Summoner and a spiritual guide, and the list goes on. I forgot to mention _one_ detail which wasn't actually urgent at the time, so you should be _praising_ me for everything _else_ I'm keeping organized, _not_ complaining about the one thing I missed." Eden blushed at the words as he hesitantly took the red, beaded earring. Seeing that he was properly chastised, she said, "Now, I'll just settle for an improvement in your attitude, especially towards that earring."

He sighed and nodded, so she told him, "About the reason for the cleansing. You know yourself how much ambient—and not necessarily benign—energy flows around us, and about how much negative energy humans and other sentient races can produce. The creation of a fayth is a pure dream, desire, hope, love, all the most positive of states. If someone who hasn't been cleansed immediately prior to the ritual steps into the circle during it, the negative energies they bring in with them will interfere with it and most likely cause it to fail. The energies may not even be their own, just energies clinging to them from the people they had met or the areas they had passed through to reach the location.

"In the cleansing bath, we prepare more than one herbal and mineral mixture which have been proven to ease stress and bleed away all but the most gentle emotions. The bath salts seep into your skin—they actually improve your physical health—and disperse the clinging energies, as well as the ones you create yourself, and the herbal incense will do the same while you breathe it in. There will be a tea when you finish in the bath, as well. In your case, this will help your sending of Nina to feel less raw, and the tension which never seems to leave your body will be lessened or released entirely."

"You expect me to believe that?" Eden asked with a raised brow, looking at her like she'd grown another head.

Giving her head a shake with an amused smile, she replied, "Keep an open mind. What I _want_ is for it to prove itself to you, not for you to believe it because I said it. I'm saying it because these are the verified medicinal effects of the herbs and minerals in question, not because we've all just 'decided' they work this way. So, give it a chance, and you'll find out for yourself how it works for you."

With a small sigh, Eden asked, "So if this has medical—scientific—data behind it, what are you actually using for each aspect?" Then his eyes abruptly narrowed and he asked in clear distaste, "Is this going to have to be one of those stupid cold water baths I heard about once?"

"Why in the _world_ would someone want to bathe in cold water unless they _wanted_ to get sick?" Yuna stared at him in shocked horror for a moment. When he blinked at her in surprise, she gave a small chuckle and said, "Get ready to go and I'll tell you about it while we go down to the men's bath. You'll have your ear pierced before you, Tidus, Wakka, Koln, and Auron bathe, and they'll do the rest to guide you through the process. A man will come by and gather your clothes to take them for washing while you're bathing."

With that, she left the room, and Eden stared down at the earring in his hand. Six inches long, very light, and composed largely of strong, red threads bound together to hold the selection of beads securely, it was a great deal more complex than he'd first thought. It was nothing like the complexity of Yuna's earring, where many of the beads were actually designed and decorated, but it was complex enough. If he looked more closely at the beads, he realized it was so light because they were finely-crafted, nearly paper-thin, hollow, painted wood delicately shielded with an energy barrier so they wouldn't take damage. Between the thread and wood, it barely weighed anything, more like any ordinary earring he'd seen some women in Amestris wear.

There were six beads with lengths of thread visible between them, each supported on an unintrusive knot in the threads. The top, bottom, and two middle beads were smaller and lacking any pattern, but the remaining two beads were each an inch from top to bottom, the lower with an 'X' pattern in yellow drawn on each side of it and the upper with a series of purple spikes pointing from bottom to top on it. The hook was plain and simple in what looked like high-quality gold, and the last inch of the earring at the bottom was effectively a series of red tassels. (1)

People were strange. Why an _earring_?

Finally, he got up and got ready to go down to the bath with Yuna, tucking the earring hook through one of the button holes on his suit jacket so she'd be able to see he had it. She was outside the door when he left the room, and led him down to the bath which had been prepared—it was actually near the Mako pool to the far side of Omega Rock. It was just coming up on dawn. As they left the shuttle Eden's room was on, he told Libby to go stay with Genesis until the ritual was done and she could rejoin him, then went on with Yuna as Libby went to find the red haired man.

On the way, she explained, "The bath will have already been prepared with sea salt balls—much less of it than if you stepped into the ocean—which have other minerals and herbs or oils in them. In this case, there will be bits somewhat like fine sand, of several agate and quartz variants, amber, and a few other stones, as well as valerian, lavender, rose, garlic, and cedar oils in the water. The incense is made from a combination of valerian, sage, thyme, holy wood, vervain, cedar, and lavender. Sweetgrass, rose, chamomile, parsley, passionflower, lemon balm, hops, sweet marjoram, skullcap, and valerian are used in the tea. In most cases, we're trying to cover the scent and taste of the valerian without causing a negative interaction—it has a rather distasteful scent and flavor, but it's also an extremely potent healer and cleanser. All of the rest also provide healing, cleansing, and relaxation."

"...You realize a lot of those are cooking herbs, right?" Eden asked with a cross-eyed expression.

"Of course," she agreed in amusement. "We cook with them because they have pleasant flavors and scents, but that doesn't diminish their healing or spiritual value. It just means everyone gets some benefit out of them, ritual or not."

"I always thought passionflower was—related to intimacy," the blond hedged tentatively.

"Not at all," the woman replied in amusement as they reached the bath.

"Hey, Yuna," Tidus called. "Eden," he added a moment later. Wakka was sitting on a near-flat rock beside where a large, portable basin similar to a tub had been placed and filled with warm water, Tidus was approaching them, and Auron was lounging against the stairs set up leading to the top rim of the basin, Koln beside him and watching curiously. Six fair-sized cups holding burning incense had been placed around the basin, which would easily have held eight men as large as Wakka. When Tidus stopped in front of the two, he asked, "What's 'not at all'?"

"Passionflower," Yuna replied with a faintly amused smile.

Tidus chuckled and said, "Yeah. Passion is about way more than hopping into bed with someone, it's about everything you do in your life. Like this, Eden—I saw you with your study last night. You and Genesis have a true _passion_ for your work, and everyone who joined you, and everyone who just watched for a bit then went back to bed, all could respect your passion for it." When the younger blond stared at him in surprised realization, he grinned and asked, "Ready to get your ear pierced so you can wear your apprentice's mark?"

With a small sigh, Eden agreed, "Okay."

"Can I leave the rest of this with you, then, Tidus, Wakka?" Yuna asked.

"He'll be fine with us," Wakka agreed in faint amusement. "You go see to your own cleansing—this time, you need it as much as _we_ do." She gave a nod and left, even as he rose and said, "Come sit over here, Eden."

Tentatively, the younger blond approached the rock, seeing ice and a device almost like a thick sewing needle on it. His instinctive reaction to the 'needle' was to gulp.

FoW

Tseng had climbed up into a tree near the circle of pillars set up by Omega Rock so he could get a decent view of the ritual they were going to be performing. It was nearing midday; if he had to guess, it was probably around eleven in the morning when people began gathering there. Many Gaian young people and ones needed to develop communities had been released onto the island over the course of the night, and were gathering with the Spirans, wondering what was going on. Of course, all of the Gaian combat personnel were _also_ gathering to see the ritual, and some of the Spirans had begun bringing out cooler boxes and setting up covered warming plates around the edges of the clearing since dawn, too.

His eyes traced the circle formed by the stone pillars and the collection of dark ropes set up just around the outside edge of it. One of the rope segments was still 'open', but an aged man who somehow reminded him of his mother was sitting by it, obviously there to 'close' it once the necessary people were inside. Each pillar seemed to be plain granite, but six long, braided ribbons in orange, red, and gold had been tied to each one, the highest up just below the top of each pillar and the lowest at about the pillars' midpoint. The cleared circle was in pristine condition, not a grain of sand out of place, and no one passing the rope boundary. In the middle of the cleared circle, a flat disk of shale had been placed, and upon it was an array which somehow seemed incomplete to him. He had no idea how correct he was in that assessment, but he somehow felt an intrinsic 'truth' to it.

He'd also seen them lay down a second, blank layer of shale below the one with the array on it. From his distance, he could see the main geometrical pattern of it, which ended up being a circle which had within it a square, and crossing the square and one another were two triangles. He'd have possibly called the two triangles a hexagram, but they weren't—they were intended as independent triangles, each with their bottom lines sharing a side of the square. At each of the six points where the square and triangles touched the circle rim, there had been drawn six smaller circles, each with a glyph in them which he didn't know. Other text had also been added to the circle, like with Eden's and Genesis' arrays, but he couldn't see any of it at his distance.

"Looks like they're almost ready," a child's voice chirped happily from beside him as a girl of about ten somehow 'landed' on the branch beside him. Looking, he saw a girl rather similar to Hana in looks, and she also reminded him somehow of his mother.

Turning back to the circle, he watched as the women who were participating approached it in a neat, calm line. Yuna was at the head of the line, followed by Hana, Rikku, and Karru. He blinked as he recognized the trance-like state of a ritual purification which had been successful and brought them all deep calm. Yuna moved to the far side of the central circle and about halfway between the shale and the pillar behind her, Hana took the corresponding place across the shale from Yuna, Rikku stood about a foot from the pillar behind Hana, and Karru took a similar position in front of the pillar to Hana's left.

As he frowned in mild confusion, the girl beside him said, "Auntie Yuna is the ritual guide, and Hana is the active participant—more even than Auron. Their anchors are the rest who should be here soon. Hana is a woman, so the most intrinsic support to her is Karru, which is why she's to Hana's left. Koln will be to her right, and Rikku is her base—her origin and family, so she's right behind her to—I guess it's like watching her back? Safety and comfort, not power. For Auntie Yuna, since Rikku is supporting Hana, she'll have Wakka behind her—his family raised her after her parents died—Tidus to her left, and Eden to her right. Ah, there are the men!"

His eyes moved to the new line approaching, a line of men in a similar trance-like state. Auron led them, followed by Wakka, Tidus, Koln, and Eden—then Tseng had to do a double-take as he realized Eden was wearing a rather bright red earring which fell past his shoulder. He blinked at the sight, then watched as Auron moved to the middle of the circle drawn on the shale, Wakka took a place by the pillar behind Yuna, Tidus stood in front of the pillar to Yuna's left, Koln took the pillar to Hana's right, and Eden took the pillar to Yuna's right. As Eden had entered the circle, the man by the open section of rope they had entered from moved to close it, then stepped back.

A voice from the circle could be heard, and Tseng stared in surprise as he listened closely to the chanting words Karru was singing. He'd missed a bit of it, the chanting song having taken him by surprise, but even just what he heard made his body shudder with emotion—sorrow, joy, hope, longing, even despair. It was powerful in a way he'd never heard anything else before. Even more people had gathered by the time Karru finished the chant, and still more stragglers were joining them, most of those from the airships.

To his surprise, the next one to chant was Eden, and the words were oddly melodic (who knew Eden could sing?), even as he again thought they were somehow familiar, like he should know exactly what the meaning was. "Ieyui...Nobomento...Renmiri...Yojuyogo...Hasatekanae...Kutamae," Eden sang. It was just as powerful as Karru's. The next to sing was Koln, and again, he frowned as he mouthed the words.

Finally, he said, "I feel like I should know what they're saying, but it isn't—coming clear to me." Following Koln, Rikku sang.

"Pray, savior...Dream...child of prayer...Forever and ever...Bring us...peace," the girl recited in their normal language as Rikku sang. "The Hymn of the Fayth (2). All Spirans know it. It's a focal point for the will of those who would be fayth, and for the pyreflies attracted to their dream. There will be times when everyone will sing. You could, too."

Tseng paused, then murmured as Tidus began singing, "It's very potent, isn't it?"

"It should be," she replied in amusement. "You'll want to pay attention to the ritual to see all the details, though. I'll answer the rest of your questions when it's done."

With a small nod, the Wutain's gaze returned to the circle. Tidus sang that chant as well, then Yuna had begun to sing—and the chant was positively _haunting_ in her voice. He couldn't have looked away if he'd _wanted_ to. Yuna's voice drifted off hauntingly—that had caused literal shivers up and down his spine!—and Hana began singing. Hers was oddly sweet and reverent, but nearly as haunting as Yuna's. When Hana finished, there was a moment of still silence, then virtually every Spiran in the crowd began to chant as Hana and Yuna began to dance in slow, flowing circles clearly guided by their staves. Those circles, if he watched them closely, were spinning from left to right, what he'd call 'clockwise'.

The chant and dancing went on for some time, but he'd honestly lost track of the time when bits of glowing, formless lights had begun trailing into the area. His eyes widened in amazement as he watched the lights split into six definite flows to trail in glowing streams into the middle of the circle, each stream of lights passing between two of the pillars in a clean, directed flow. The six people standing at each pillar were somehow directing the Spiran pyreflies so neatly? More and more gathered as Auron lifted his hands to watch them gather around his body, and his body—which had already been glowing faintly—began to glow with a much greater intensity.

After a pause, Auron looked up at Hana, watching her more closely then he had been, and soon after, his eyes slid shut as he smiled faintly and completely _relaxed_. As his voice rose in the chant above the other Spirans' voices, they abruptly began to silence, and Auron's chant was deep and reverberating, with a power behind it which caused the ground to tremble. Beside him, the girl gave a soft, very impressed whistle, but said nothing, so he stayed focused on the circle and Auron.

As the man finished chanting, several things happened all at once. Hana and Yuna finished their current dance motion and halted to stand still and straight, Auron's body began flickering with intense light, the Spiran pyreflies swirled around him on their own energy. It took only a moment after that for the man's body to begin to collapse, but rather than falling, it levitated to hover half a foot above the ground, buoyed by the energy of the swirling Spiran pyreflies. A few Gaian pyreflies seemed to have joined the mix as well, making him blink again. It was only as the swirl and the glow began to fade that he realized the swirl had been flowing from right to left, or 'counter-clockwise'. Blinking in surprise as Auron seemed to be settled on his feet, he kept his eyes fixed on what was happening.

Still silence had fallen.

It wasn't broken until Auron himself lifted his head skyward and began chanting again, his voice still holding the power from before, but now somehow more mystical in tone. Stillness remained, until he began the song a second time, when everyone in the surroundings, including the girl beside him, began to chant with the man. At the same time as the chanting began, Hana and Yuna began to dance again, the same style of dance as before, but reversed—they were now dancing in a pattern from right to left, the counter-clockwise variant of the dance. The effect on the hovering pyreflies was immediate—they began gathering around the man in the middle of the circle in mass numbers, and many, many more of them began streaming rapidly between the pillars to coalesce around Auron.

Almost against his will, Tseng found himself joining in the chant with the Spirans, the will and power of the ritual was so intensely strong. Nothing else existed, and it was only his training as a Turk which allowed him to take note of how many Gaians were currently singing—nearly all of them, right along with the Spirans. Even Eden and the other anchors inside the circle were singing.

Suddenly, with a start, he realized the array circle below Auron was changing entirely of its own accord, being re-written and re-shaped to a new form, and the form it was taking had a definite purpose. He didn't know what kind, but he could see the distinct form of a blade-like shape running through it in one diagonal across the square, and another which more resembled a lance or spear crossing the sword but under it. Most of the lines were sharp, the pattern practical and non-decorative, even as it kept adjusting its form for the Aeon the pyrefly-coated man would become.

It shocked him when the gathered energy suddenly flared, then vanished—leaving in its place an armored warrior bearing a sword and a naginata—a staff topped by a katana blade. The helmet he wore seemed off somehow, but left only his mouth and chin visible, with an open visor where his eyes were vaguely visible. The armor was light-weight but metal in plates which were covering leather...or leathery skin? Red edging was the only offset to the black of the armor, and the weathered tan of the leather, or leathery skin, whichever it was. By the fact that his chin showed as the same color as the leather bits which were visible, it was likely the latter.

At the flare, still silence had fallen again, even as the new Aeon looked down at himself, flexing his muscles experimentally for a few moments before looking up again at Hana. "Summoner Hana, I have given you a test of your worth, and have found you to be a suitable Summoner. I ask you now, will you have me at your side, as a friend, an advisor, and as a protector, on your journey to help the people of Spira?" Auron asked, his voice reverberating with power across the crowd.

Hana had to draw in three breaths, then lifted her free hand in offering as she replied in a strong, open voice, "I would be honored to have your friendship, wisdom, and protection at my side, fayth Auron, Aeon Odin."

At the last word, a soft, reverent whisper traveled through the crowd, and Tseng almost fell from his perch. Odin, as in the same kind of Summon Eden had gotten the Slepnir mount from way back during the Wutain Invasion of Midgar? This Odin definitely had no mount, though...

Auron-as-Odin reached out to grasp Hana's hand, and his body shimmered, then dissolved into energy which flowed through her, most of it into her as a small portion broke off from the rest to travel to her opposite hand and up to the head of her staff. Everyone watched in amazement as her staff glowed for a moment and shifted. It was now topped by white-gold with two of its several rings in obsidian, the two rings each struck through with something which was long and pointed—likely swords. For a minute after the bonding, Hana stood quietly, head bowed and eyes closed as her hand moved to the middle of her chest.

When she looked up, Yuna smiled at her and stepped carefully around the new array written on the sheet of shale until she stood directly in front of Hana. At that point, she said clearly for everyone to hear, "You now have your First Summon. Congratulations, Hana. You've proven your skill as one of our number, and have earned the mark of a Summoner." She tugged something from in the front of her wraparound shirt, and extended it towards Hana so everyone could see it—the blue thread-and-bead Summoner's earring. "Wear it with pride."

Tears filled Hana's eyes, but they didn't fall as she smiled. Reaching up, she grasped the earring and replied, "Thank you, and I will. Absolutely." Yuna released it, and Hana lifted it to grip the hook in her mouth so she could remove the red earring. The red one, she offered to Yuna, who took it with a nod and another smile, then Hana took the blue one from her mouth and slipped it into her ear in place of the red one.

When she turned around to face Rikku, Karru, and Koln, the two women cheered and ran the few steps to her to hug her, and Koln smiled with pride and clapped her on the back.

Like that cheer was a sign, literally everyone else present cheered—loudly. If they hadn't all been so clearly happy, Tseng would have been worried a riot was about to start.

Once the cheer petered out and the others in the circle had been able to quietly congratulate Hana, Yuna stepped a bit away from the others and called to those gathered outside the circle, "Thank you all for being here today! Since most of the airships' chefs have been working hard since last night to create a celebratory feast for us all, now is the time to thank their hard work! Dig in and enjoy!"

Another cheer rose from the crowd, and they all began finding the troves of food placed around the edges of the clearing, cheerful, excited chatter following them as several of the men pulled apart the outer edge of the rope circle border.

 **Notes:**

(1) This earring in particular, as the apprentice's one, is largely the opposite of the Summoner's earring, with small things like the spikes on one bead pointing in the opposite direction from the one Summoners wear, or some colors reversed, things like that. Looking up Yuna's earring online and comparing a good photo with this description should make it pretty obvious what the differences are, or you could ask me to list them if you care enough to want to know.

(2) After 3500 years, in theory, this likely would have changed to some degree, but the base purpose of the fayth and the Aeons hasn't. To compound the situation, Yuna is the same person as the one from 3500 years before, and this was the hymn she knew. Since it still fit its purpose, it's likely she would have simply revived it when she revived Summoning 800 years ago, rather than trying to create a new one or change the existing one—which, for the record, a person would have to know Japanese very, very well to do, and I don't know it that well. Since keeping it the same is actually viable, this was the best option.


	60. 56-Reasons

Reasons

Tseng was still feeling aftershocks from the sheer power of the ritual, so was in no hurry to move from his place on the branch—he'd probably fall if he tried. Since the girl had apparently opted to stay beside him, he thought there was no better time to ask a few questions, so turned to look at her. "Why are the ribbon colors on the pillars orange, red, and gold?" he asked, then gave her a mild glare as she gave an amused smile at the residual tremble in his voice.

"...I don't know if the colors really represent what we've assigned to them, but for us, orange is a color associated with death, red with vitality, and gold with transmutation and transformation," she explained, not saying anything about how affected he was by the ritual.

The color meanings made the reason clear, and while Tseng wasn't sure colors even _had_ meanings beyond what people arbitrarily ascribed to them, he recognized the relevance of them in the ritual. It was strange to him to think so many small details were needed in a ritual of this sort when everyone could apparently wear anything they wanted and it could be performed in an open space for anyone to see. Wutain rituals were so defined that they required such specific details as the number and relationships of the people present, the style, color, and material of dress, the way one's hair was worn, and what colors in the surroundings were visible, so he wasn't 'surprised' by their colored ribbons, at least.

"Why don't they have some sort of prescribed clothing or a more secluded place for something so sacred?" was his next question, though it hadn't come out quite the way he'd been trying to ask it.

The girl beside him seemed to know what he meant anyway, and explained, "This is all energy. Your clothing has nothing to do with your energy, it's all your heart and soul. The best I can say is, when you wear something that cuts off your circulation and makes you feel uncomfortable, you're also interrupting your energy flows. If you're wearing something comfortable, it has no effect, no matter _what_ it is. I mean, not something you're used to wearing so don't notice the discomfort—those are bad—but things which you never, ever felt uncomfortable wearing. That's why Summoners don't have a uniform, they just have the earring, and it's very light, so doesn't normally create energy impediments.

"Any time they do this ritual, it has to be in a place with a lot of light, so a well-lit temple room is usually what they use, but a lot of times, it's done outdoors, midday on a sunny day, for the natural sunlight. Also, the warmth is fantastic with this kind of ritual so you don't start getting cold—in the temples, that can happen. Everyone on Spira takes this as a sacred event and treats it that way, so it's no harm to the ritual or the participants for strangers to watch or chant for it. If anything, having so many people focused on the creation of a fayth or an Aeon makes it more likely to happen."

"What did you mean when you said 'Hana is a woman'? Why is that detail so special?" Tseng asked, recalling what she'd said soon after she'd joined him.

"Because women's energy and men's energy flows in different directions. Women's energy flows from left to right, and men's flows from right to left. When men and women try to use the opposite flow, everything is harder for them, though there are an odd few exceptions. In this case, because they're trying to moderate the flows of energy and direct them as much as possible, it's especially important they pay attention to those flows.

"The outer circle was intrinsic to Hana and Auntie Yuna, but the central circle was intrinsic to Auron, so when Hana and Auntie Yuna danced to draw pyreflies to him once he was a fayth, they had to reverse the dance to make it flow from right to left—you saw the difference between the first dance to generally call pyreflies and the second to direct them to him. The Summoner dance Eden learned originally was also the right-to-left one, which he'll use most often, even though he'll also know the left-to-right one," the girl explained.

After a pause to think about that, Tseng decided he didn't get the logic behind it one bit, though something about it rang at least partially true. As such, he asked the next thing he'd seen and wanted an explanation for, "Why six?"

"Three and six are common and versatile numbers. The base array has six points because it was the only one we could glyph into a state where it would re-shape itself to reflect the Aeon being formed. The resulting image there now is reflective only of the Odin formed by Auron—any other Odin, and Odin glyph, would look somewhat different. Under it, the other sheet of shale should also have an image now—maybe you'll get to see it before they add it to the store of fayth anchors in Zan-Bev's temple chamber network. Each of _those_ looks different for every single fayth-turned-Aeon, too, even ones of the same general type. Because the array uses six key points, often the best number of people is six to direct the flows, too," the girl explained with an amused smile.

She was baiting him, and she knew it. That annoyed Tseng. "Why six pillars?"

"Because it was convenient," she smirked.

He blinked and asked stupidly, "What?"

"If this was happening in a temple, we'd be surrounded by walls. The pillars are only marking the 'walls' and giving us a place to add the ribbons and help set the mood. It's nothing more than that. In fact, even though the colors have meanings, even the ribbons are really just decoration to set the mood." The girl looked pleased, rather than amused.

"Most people respect their rituals more," he commented darkly. Though, he hadn't really followed any of the ones he'd been taught as a child since he'd arrived in Midgar. All the same, if he _was_ going to perform or participate in one, he'd follow it and not say foolish things about the requirements 'just setting the mood'.

"I do," she replied, kicking her feet and grinning. "Mood is important to a successful ritual, but it's the difference between 'necessary' and 'unnecessary'. This helps, but you could completely take those away and the ritual would still work just fine. _The people_ are the power behind it, _not_ the objects _around_ them."

With a sigh of long suffering, recognizing the point for what it was, even in his own Wutain rituals, Tseng asked, "So what in the ritual is 'absolutely necessary'?"

"Hmm...Based on what needs to happen when a fayth becomes one without the ritual, the new fayth-to-be and the pyreflies _must_ be there. They need a focus, too. Usually, the focus is the Summoner they're going to bind themselves to, but it can be something else, too. So, having a guide, having the six anchors, having the Hymn of the Fayth—unless that's your focus—and having the array are all unnecessary. They make it a lot easier, but they can be gotten rid of, especially in a pinch. What you need to realize is that doing it this way is pretty much a guarantee of success, but it can still happen without all of that...Except that the success rate drops below five percent, and literally depends wholly on the to-be-fayth's will to be one."

Tseng's gaze turned back to the now-deserted circle of pillars as he thought about the point she was making. It was true. The more people who participated in making something a success, the more likely it was to be one, and with only one or a few, their skills and will to see it through were more often the deciding factors. What he realized by extension was that, for a success, the rather minimalistic requirements for the ritual all had to be observed—there actually weren't unnecessary parts to it, other than superficial aspects of the setting. And it would be a rather bleak ritual without those bright ribbons to color the area.

"When Auron began to collapse, what was that?" he finally asked.

Giving him a nod, she replied, "If Auron had been a living human rather than an unsent, that would have been his body dying and his soul lifting from it to form the fayth. Since he's unsent, the pattern just took over purely to the fayth aspect, and there's no body to dispose of. Before you ask, yes, the body is _dead_ , not just comatose. The heart and brain shut down immediately as soon as the soul is severed completely from it."

"...And people are _happy_ to die this way?" he asked quietly, suddenly feeling pained that he'd participated.

The girl poked his side, causing him to glare at her. "I'm not dead, am I?" she asked bluntly.

"I...beg your pardon?" he frowned at the girl.

"I'm a fayth named Tenza, and an Aeon called Ashura. I've been alive for eight hundred years. I'm not dead, am I?" she asked him again. He gaped at her, so she went on, "You have to realize that 'death' isn't just about your physical body, it's about your presence and your spirit. I was going to die young, no matter what I did—Null saw to that. But I didn't want to die, so I prayed. I wanted to live. There were still dreams I had and a life I wanted to live. This way, I was able to do so. I don't regret doing it. Not to mention, that method of death is actually painless. And you can think of it this way—if you and Eden were the only two people being attacked and you were both about to die...If you knew he'd be able to give you the anchor you needed to manifest as an Aeon and save him, what would you do? Let both of you die, or try to become your salvation? _His_ salvation?"

Blinking, the Wutain mulled the words over, then slowly asked, "Why did you pick Eden as the example for me? Just because I know him or because he's the only Gaian Summoner?"

She snickered. "I've seen the way you look at him, lover boy. The question is, how extensive, and how deep, is that feeling?"

He went cross-eyed for a moment, wondering when he'd looked at Eden that way recently, then decided he didn't actually care. Going back to her original question, he thought about it as his eyes scanned the crowd to find the blond Turk. With that focus, he felt his skin hum. The girl, who he now knew was named Tenza, gave an impressed hum, making him turn to look at her with confusion.

"You could become a fayth right now if you wanted to," she told him. "As soon as you focused on him, the residual energy of the ritual started activating again—you already know the answer, what you'd do. And you also know you wouldn't regret it. Any other questions?"

Tseng still had far too much to do to give her words more serious thought, so he put that out of his mind in favor of the reminder seeing Eden and his new earring had given him. "The earring—the blue one and the red one. Is there any particular reason for them? I mean, beyond the mark they act as and how heavy they must be."

"Most of the beads are just painted wood, so aren't actually heavy at all. For the red one, it represents vitality, and beginning. It doesn't have any particular traits to it because it's worn by apprentices who won't be directly trying to send on fiends like Sin or Null, or anything else especially dangerous. There's only been a very small number of exceptions. The blue one represents calm and clarity. The bottom bead on it is actually a kind of brownish stone with bits of red-brown and faded gray-green in it which has some protective, yellow paint on the very bottom of it—the stone is called amulet stone. It helps to calm their wearers and protect them from harm and negative energy—the things Summoners most deal with. That stone is actually the most important part of the Summoner's earring," the fayth girl explained. "Also, both colors stand out boldly so people can see them."

"Have you ever worn one to know how heavy they are?" the Wutain asked with a small frown.

Tenza looked amused. "My mom used to wear hoop earrings in metal that made her earlobes stretch. They had weight in my hand. Auntie Yuna's weighed nothing next to those, and her ear never stretched, no matter how long she wore it for. It's light. The only real weight comes from the amulet stone, and it's not that large or weighty, either—it's mostly hollow, like the wooden ones. Think of all of the beads like hollow balls, with really only a couple millimeters of thickness for their coating. Then, just add a hole at the top and bottom for the thread to pass through. Threading those kinds of beads means using a needle to pull the thread through, otherwise it usually gets stuck in the hollow in the bead."

Blinking in surprise, Tseng had to admit they would be awfully light, apparent bulk aside. "I noticed that Minerva—our planetary entity—apparently also participated in the ritual." When Tenza gave him a puzzled look, he added, "Some of the pyreflies were Gaian ones, green-white and general creation-based bits of energy."

"Oh, that's what those ones were," the girl grinned. "I think they helped it work. I guess that means your entity approves of the fayth." Her expression became a smirk for a moment, then her head turned towards the ritual circle again. "They're taking the two shale sheets now. You'll see the bottom one when they move the top one."

Tseng turned to look, and sure enough, several men in Farterra uniforms were moving the top sheet as several more waited to take the bottom one. The top one was carried in the general direction of the coast, which left a clear view of the bottom sheet. The Wutain stared in surprise at the image on it, which showed Auron in a face-down position, his arms stretched out to the sides, though his body was only visible from the waist up due to the black clouds which were shown covering his legs. In one hand, he held a katana with its blade pointed downward towards the bottom of an hourglass the hand was apparently inside (a section of that arm wasn't visible behind the edge of the hourglass), and in the other hand was a naginata (1).

The hourglass showed as having only a few grains of sand in the top—all the rest of the sand had fallen, and the tip of the sword was lined up just at the place where the sand passed through. Tseng shuddered at the implication of 'time running out', and that the last 'grain of sand' would be the blade—death. The image of death was compounded by the black armor on Auron's arms, the naginata blade positioned to curve over the man's head much like a representation of a reaper's scythe blade, and the black clouds filling the 'open' space in the image and covering his lower body. Narrowing his eyes, Tseng realized the lower body wasn't completely covered—it was very faintly visible, if you knew you had to look for bones in the darkness of the clouds, not proper legs.

"That's...shockingly frightening and detailed," Tseng muttered.

"Heh heh," Tenza replied with a smirk. "Some of ours turn out to be, yes. Mine ends up looking pretty creepy, too. I have six arms in it, and two of those are holding killing blades. And the funniest part is that my primary color is golden-white. At least his is black, just like what he IS—death."

"I thought orange represented death?"

"It does. A different kind of death, though. Self-chosen, either self-sacrifice or because a decision went wrong or there was an accident. Black is the death of an assassin or a soldier or an executioner."

At that point, Tseng felt he was done with the discussion, so dropped down from the branch to the ground. Looking back up at the startled girl, he said, "Thank you for sharing all of that with me. Now that I'm stable again, I'm going to join them to offer my congratulations."

"Okay!" Tenza agreed happily, hopping easily to the ground and following him as he headed into the crowd.

FoW

Eden was still trying to shake off the trance-like state of the ritual as he sat at one of the tables, back against the table edge. Libby was on one shoulder, Carbuncle was on the other, and Genesis was sitting at the table with Shelke as the girl happily ate the sweets and candy she'd wanted. Absently, his fingers went up to the earring he wore—it was still so strange to him, because even though it was very light, he really wasn't used to having something like that touching him all the time. Not to mention, back in Amestris, and even on Gaia, men generally didn't wear earrings—Ruluf was the only one he knew who did, and his were very small. The blond Turk already knew there was no way he was going to sleep with an earring on, let alone one so long he could actually roll over on top of it.

"Feeling all right, Eden?" Tseng asked as he joined them, followed by Tenza.

Eden faintly raised a brow at her as she squealed, "Is that cake? And candy? I want some!" A moment later, Tenza had parked herself beside Shelke—on the same seat—and they were giggling together as they got their sugar rush.

Turning to look at Tenza, Eden commented, "I had no idea fayth—spirits—could eat."

"Heh heh! We can if we really want to!" she replied, then turned all her attention back to the sweets and the awed girl beside her.

With a small sigh, the blond turned back to a startled-looking Tseng and said, "I'm fine, just a little disoriented from the cleansing bath. I still can't quite shake off the trance."

"Why are you even _trying_ to?" Tseng asked dryly. When Eden blinked slowly in obvious confusion, the Wutain elaborated, "The _point_ of the bath is to give you relaxation and peace, to release the stress and tension from your body, give yourself the ability to set aside all your troubles for awhile. More than anyone, you need that. You'd think you _want_ to be stressed all the time by your reaction right now."

For a minute, the blond was quiet, then he sighed and said, "I've been so stressed for so long that I don't know how not to be, and it feels like something's missing if I'm not. It just feels strange, uncomfortable, even. I'm not nearly alert enough, either."

"Isn't that why Libby and Carbuncle are clinging to you—so you can be relaxed and unalert, and they'll let you know if something's wrong that you need to react to?" the Wutain asked in a pointed tone. If it had just been Libby, he'd have thought it was just normal companionship, but Carbuncle was energetic and liked to explore, so for it to just be staying at Eden's side like that was a rather strong implication of it taking its role of protective Summon seriously.

"Yup!" both Libby and Carbuncle chirped in reply to Tseng's words.

"...Huh..." Eden muttered. "I still don't feel right."

"Too much guilt he feels he _must_ carry," Genesis piped up from behind Eden.

"No one asked for your opinion on that, Genesis," the blond huffed in mild irritation.

"But no less true," the red haired man smirked.

Eden just sighed, so Tseng took the last free seat at the table and asked, "What was the ritual like for you? And how were you directing the Spiran pyreflies?"

"The pyreflies mostly directed _themselves_ to go around our completely peaceable energies. We weren't _trying_ to make them go in little lines like that, or to become fayth or unsent, we weren't angry or any other agitated emotion they could have attached to, so they largely just passed us by. Yuna and Hana were pulling them in on a largely horizontal plain, directing them downward so they'd have to pass between us in order to answer their beckoning dance. We just had to make sure none of them tried to cling to our energies, which was really just nudging them a bit with our thoughts and will. The ritual..."

Eden paused and drifted off for a minute, then said, "You weren't in the circle, but you felt the power, right? I'd be _shocked_ if you didn't. What _you_ felt from the ritual, take that power and multiply it by about four. It was enough to make me dizzy and light-headed, and it was only the state I was in which kept me grounded. Being right in that center of power was so intense I literally couldn't see or focus on anything else—training be damned, when you're right _in_ that, everything outside the designated space is a blank. I was already not fully aware of my surroundings, but that just made my lack of awareness complete. It's a good thing I have no desire to become a fayth, or I probably could have done it with will alone right then."

The Wutain was silent for a minute before saying, "Tenza told me I'd be able to transition to a fayth if I wanted to, even this long after the ritual. Do you know how that would be possible?"

Curious, golden eyes lifted to Tseng's dark ones as the blond assessed the words for a minute. The energy had already ebbed from the area, so there was no particular reason for a human to feel that way right then. Finally, his eyes focused on the red stone on Tseng's forehead as he realized the most likely reason for it, and commented in wry amusement, "You're already half-way to being a full-fledged fayth and Aeon— _Alexander_."

"Holy Aeon?" Tenza asked suddenly, her head snapping around and up so suddenly the others heard her neck crack. Genesis and Shelke both winced at the sound. "You're already one? How?"

"Didn't anyone tell you I'm half-human and half-Summon?" Tseng asked with a raised brow. Tenza gaped, so he added, "My mother is an Alexander, my father was human. I'm effectively half-spirit in basic genetic make-up." His gaze moved to Eden again as he admitted, "Your reasoning actually makes a great deal of sense—more than my own so-called emotion. Even though I have that, too, and in a situation like the one Tenza gave me, I'd probably transition entirely to spirit form. That I'm already half-way there would be a major assist. Of course, I'd do the same for any of the Turks, including you and Verdot, Aeris, or a dozen others who aren't Turks."

Eden gave him a wryly amused smile. "Thanks, but I'm in no hurry to have any other Aeons. Carbuncle and Unicorn are enough. I sure don't want a human to die to become one for me."

"And what if both of us were about to die and my doing so would allow us both to live?" Tseng asked shrewdly.

"...That's too much like what happened to my brother," the blond sighed softly.

"He never had a choice. _My_ choice is my own. Remember our discussion about where blame actually belongs, Eden?"

Shocked silence fell for a moment, then Tenza and Shelke very deliberately went back to their sweet treats in an effort to ignore the discussion they'd just heard. Eden leaned his head back and closed his eyes as he thought, and Genesis and Tseng both just watched him quietly for a minute before starting a soft discussion between themselves.

 **Notes:**

(1) This is the Japanese (and Wutain, by extension) name for a glaive-like weapon which is effectively a katana blade attached to the top of a long staff. A well-made one has a blade of the same quality and sharpness as a katana, and made in the same way as one—the only real difference between a katana and a naginata is the length of the 'handle'.


	61. 57-Compromise

Compromise

Because of the ritual and the celebration the day before, nothing else got done that day, certainly nothing stressful or which required planning. Hana had called Auron back to join in the celebration not too long after it had begun, and he had ended up spending most of his time with his former fellow Guardians, Yuna, Hana and her two registered Guardians, or Kariya and whoever was with him at the time. No one else had appeared from Omega Rock since shortly after breakfast that day, so some of the Gaians were taken up with helping the new arrivals orient themselves—around the ritual and celebration, of course.

Yuna and Hikari had also managed to find time to escape from the others for her lessons in proper meditation and self-mediation, and in the evening, as the celebration was winding down, Yuna also took Eden aside for another lesson. She was pleased that he learned quickly, but while he could do so with technical details, what worried her more was his mental state. No one could speed up the process to achieving wisdom, and he had previously mostly had poor examples of what wisdom entailed—the best he'd gotten had been from the Turks, so he had quite a learning curve in that regard.

Morning saw the new arrivals going over plans, materials, and foundation-building for some buildings they'd put on the island. Rufus left them to it for the most part, only telling them to talk with the Cetra and Motos about what they would need there. When he was asked why, he replied simply that it was a small island, and keeping large populations there wouldn't be anything like feasible, so it stood to reason to keep the two smallest of their populations there if they wanted it, which they did. As long as they arranged a port, both ship and airship, for the people of the island and the continent to have regular travel between them, they were absolutely fine.

At that point, Reeve had also been helping to direct them and work with them on what they were going to do there, but at about the time of the noon meal, he stopped and joined Rufus at his table when he saw the man sitting with the general leaders of the various groups they had there. Tseng, Veta, Godo, Felicia, Sephiroth, Thaldras, Yuna, Tidus, Wakka, and Rikku had joined Rufus—and him—directly. Tables around them included Hana, Eden, Karru, and Koln, Genesis, Shelke, Angeal, and Sora, Shears, Reno, Verdot, and Aeris, two sat the Spiran Captains, and several other groups of both Gaians and Spirans surrounded those.

"So, after all the excitement yesterday, I suppose it's time to get back to work," Reeve commented in wry amusement as the last people were just sitting around them.

"It is," Rufus agreed, suddenly looking tired for a moment before his gaze became focused again. "We need to start getting answers." His gaze turned to Thaldras to ask him, "Are you able to find out what Minerva's plan is now, and what's been arranged?"

"Much of it," Thaldras agreed. "So, the other entity has given the name 'Kaillyr' (1) to call him, and he would ordinarily resemble a young adult, perhaps seventeen or eighteen by the way we know appearance. He is, however, much more aged, though this is his first world, while it is Minerva's third—well, her fourth upon her arrival here. He resorted to de-aging his form to reduce the energy he was required to function on, something which Minerva never allowed herself to do, and once the world has re-stabilized, he should be able to revert to his proper appearance.

"In the meantime, his mental faculties function as should be expected of a being like Minerva or himself, so he and she have determined how best to arrange the world to maintain both of their best qualities and to negate or reduce the worst ones." Thaldras' gaze moved to Yuna and the other three Spirans as he said to them directly, "Kaillyr has agreed to a communion with those who train as Summoners, first and foremost, though your terms will be somewhat different from ours and should begin initiating in the next few days.

"Primarily, either he will forcibly speak with you, or you will be able to request from him advice or instruction as needed. Both will show outwardly to others so they know without doubt you are indeed in communication with him. None of us will know that visual until the first time it happens. In addition, he will possibly choose someone as a Summoner, so they may, in fact, begin communicating with him before receiving any training, though generally the active genetics and training should result in communication at some point approximately mid-training. In the case of Gaians who learn the skill, or who are able to learn it—they will all have Cetra genetics. The degree of activation of those genetics will determine if they will be capable of communicating only with Kaillyr or with both Kaillyr and Minerva.

"This comes hand-in-hand with Spiran Healers, which are not the same as the healing skills most often learned by Summoners. Your own people have always had some who were incredibly capable of healing, plants, animals, people, the world itself. Those people may not be our blood, but they shall be given to us for training in how best to use those skills. The effect will be the opposite of the results of Gaians learning Summoning, and they will primarily gain the ability to speak with Minerva, though some may also gain the ability to speak with both Minerva and Kaillyr. The reason for this is because, too often, lack of ability to communicate with spiritual entities has resulted in unwarranted destruction, and hopefully, this will prevent that. Minerva has also deemed a visual showing her communication with others will be valid, and she shall also establish a visual effect, though one different from Kaillyr's."

When he stopped, Yuna asked, "And the state of the Farplane and those who have passed on?"

Nodding, Thaldras said, "The Farplane itself will remain, though he shall not be housed in it—he will be creating a core similar to Minerva's. Rather, the Farplane will become a housing location for souls to be visited by those who know and remember them. Family and friends will be able to go and speak with them, and there are two requirements for them to be released from there—either every person who knew them and qualified to visit them has done so, or all of those qualified people have died. At that point, they would return to a cycle of energy from which new souls will be created and chosen to be reborn. Any entities in spirit form—fiends, unsent, beckoned, fayth—will be greatly reduced in number, and for those who stay, it will be due either to their own will or the will of one who cared about them, though the level of will would effectively require something akin to what produces a fayth."

"What about obsession rather than caring?" Rikku asked, her expression pale and pained.

It was Felicia who told her, "That's not possible at this point. Both Minerva and Kaillyr have agreed to deliberately exclude certain emotions from creating such a result, largely because those acts would be creating suffering, and suffering harms them. If anything, fiends and beckoned should nearly vanish entirely, the number of unsent should be slightly reduced, and the number of fayth should, comparatively, increase."

"Yeah, that part—about the fiends and your 'monsters'—still puzzles me, even though Karru said we'd be bored without something to fight," Tidus commented. "It _still_ seems counter-productive to get rid of the fiends, just to replace them with monsters."

"Even though the girl's first thought was to keep us from getting bored, there's another reason we, and you, don't actually _want_ to get rid of monsters, though," Reeve said in a dry tone. When all eyes focused on him in confusion, he said, "We use products off them just as readily as we use Chocobos for feathers and riding. Many powerful spears are made from Behemoth horns and claws, and Malboros give us the toxins we use in antidotes, eye drops, remedies, and many other medicines, just to start with. Losing those products would be devastating to many of our professional fields, and many, many thousands of people would lose their jobs. If you want to be counter-productive, just see what happens if you take away so many people's sources of income with nothing but limited menial labor to give them in its place. I guarantee it won't go over well."

A long silence followed Reeve's words, then Wakka gave a nod and said, "You're also talking about all the people whose jobs're fighting those monsters losing their jobs if there was nothing for them to fight anymore. They don't have any _other_ useful skills, so they'd end up becoming bandits or starting wars. We can't afford that."

Reeve nodded, and Thaldras agreed, "So, as both entities took that into account as well, monsters are a must. The only difference now is that they'll be natural creatures which reproduce like any common cat or dog, just with more violent tendencies than normal animals. Both our continent and yours shall have new breeds, but also many of the ones we were already familiar with, as they were very similar between our worlds."

"Speaking of the continent, what have we got to work with?" Tseng asked. "We saw a map before thanks to Captain Sanni, but there are a lot of unanswered questions as well. And that's besides the destruction the existing Spiran land mass suffered."

Yuna nodded and said, "As of when we headed here, there were Gaian pyreflies floating around our continent, but it was night and we couldn't see what effect, if any, it had been having. Late yesterday, I got a report from the Zan-Bev Fort saying they were looking out at a young Macalania Forest with trees half the size they had previously been. It looks like Minerva is helping to restore our lands for us, make them livable again. Rebuilding the destroyed towns and villages will be something we can accomplish with the restoration of our lands. It should be fine for you to focus on building your own communities."

"That would be true," Thaldras agreed. "It is not Minerva's nature to leave her people to suffer, and all of the people living on the world where she currently resides are 'her children'. Once she knew from Kaillyr what you would require, she was able to produce it. Her having had so much energy returned to her when she did was highly beneficial to her ability to provide for all of us, so she has done so. You should recognize most of what is growing on your continent, though on Kaillyr's request, she has also caused to grow several very ancient and previously extinct plants. They are largely for healing, relaxation, and maintaining health, with one which will be useful in textiles. Our continent shall be where the plants you are unfamiliar with will be, though they will be familiar to us, and even we shall have some unknown types which were ancient plants from her previous worlds with similar purposes to the new ones you will discover on your land."

"We need more plants for those types of things?" the heterochromic woman blinked.

He gave her an amused look and said, "We have created an interesting setting here for exchanging illnesses and diseases both of our respective peoples are unfamiliar with, and our bodies have no ability to protect us from. We will need those new plants desperately to mitigate those new illnesses until our bodies learn to heal from them. It will harm us more, being on a completely different world, but that does not exempt you from gaining our illnesses, as we are all carriers of them. I suggest you send back to your people to start looking for and testing the new plants _now_ , _before_ you all begin falling ill with unknown diseases."

Everyone gaped at him in shock for a minute, then Yuna nodded and agreed, "As soon as we're done here, I'll do that." He nodded in reply.

"Do we have anything else we need to know?" Tseng asked, head tipped to the side in a thoughtful manner.

"Could I say something?" Aeris cut in from her seat at one of the side tables. The others looked at her, so she said, "At first, we need to build a few ports to the southern side of the island, then cross to the northern side to build a few more. The climate distribution sort of means the people from the Corel, Gongaga, Mideel, and Wutai areas will need to stay in the south, while the rest would move to the north, or into the mountains. Also, for goods production, those would be the areas most likely for us to be able to work with.

"But, the big issue is going to be the kind of society we're going to build, and Minerva can't actually dictate that, even if she hopes we'll start fixing the problems we created. And we now have the added factor of what the Spirans are going to do, how they're going to influence us or us them. It would have been easier to make changes to our own society without the outside influence, but that's not possible now—so what are we _actually going_ to do?"

A long silence followed her words, until Wakka commented, "By 'balance of power', your Minerva, and you, are more powerful, so we'd have to follow your lead, ya?"

Rufus made a disgusted face and stated, "If you try to do that for such a foolish reason, I'll personally see to it you regret your decision. Your so-called view of 'balance of power' is pure stupidity from the start."

"But after everything _we've_ seen and heard, Minerva is more powerful than Kaillyr, and honestly, we only have a handful of people capable of taking on your people," Tidus pointed out dryly. "It's _not_ foolish to concede to the greater power."

"If your assessment was valid, possibly," Felicia said. "But it's _not_ , Tidus, Wakka." Both men blinked at her uncomprehendingly, so she clarified, "Minerva is far more inclined towards helping people because she has the experience to say that actively helping them generally produces better results than leaving them entirely to their own devices. Right now, she has more available energy because she's not had a world to expend it on for the last five hundred years, but that doesn't actually make her _power level_ greater than Kaillyr's. The only thing she's more advanced in is her amount of accumulated knowledge and experience.

"To help put this into perspective, their agreement is to _balance_ their power, not for one to take precedence over the other. Minerva will keep her land mass and roughly this half of the world, and Kaillyr will keep yours and roughly your half of the world, interacting with one another but reducing each one's respective workloads. Both are also learning from one another, as there are some beneficial things Kaillyr did which she had simply never thought of, and the reverse is also true. They've also both done things they shouldn't have. This is the reason we're seeing a lot of compromises between them and the structure of the world they're modifying. Don't think for a moment that Kaillyr is somehow 'lesser' than Minerva just because he's younger."

There was a startled pause on all the Spiran's parts before Yuna faced Rufus directly and asked, "You weren't referring to that when you said we shouldn't be conceding to you just because you're more powerful. What _did_ you mean, Rufus?"

The blond young man gave her a dark look and said, "It's simple, really. Either you follow something because you believe in it—no one can force you to, as much as they'd like to try—or you don't. If someone tries to force adherence to a way of living they don't want, I've seen it generally produces two results: terrorists acting against the powers that be, and a bunch of people who give it lip service when in front of the powers that be, but who simply keep abiding their own ways in private. Nothing changes that way, Yuna. And people like us, who hold positions of power in the eyes of our people, can only offer so much guidance down any one path."

When Yuna's gaze became thoughtful, he knew she had realized what he meant. The thought was affirmed when she said, "I've seen some of that, yes. I can give people advice until I'm blue in the face, but they won't take it unless they feel like doing so. My success rate is higher than average, but that hinges strongly on how long I've been part of their world and lives, and how much respect they have for me. It's not fool-proof, and I can't force it. I can only lead by example. Even that has limited success when people react in anger or other strong emotions, and there are always some who feel entitled to more than others. It's a difficulty I haven't yet been able to resolve."

"Are you still using a monetary system? I would assume so, but circumstances in the last five years may have changed that," Rufus commented in a dry tone.

"To an extent, the system has changed, as we now have a refugee status which grants basic necessities to those who couldn't remain in their homes," Yuna sighed. "But mostly, there's still a functioning monetary system. I'm really starting to think something is wrong with people when they think they should be using destructive situations to drain people dry of their funds..."

"We see the same phenomenon," Reeve agreed. "And we need a better way to handle things. What way that would be, I don't know, but we need to find one quickly, before we revert back to warlike ways. And we definitely need to step away from Mako energy."

"Mako?" several Spirans asked.

"The energy from the Lifestream—that is, Minerva's energy—in liquid form," Reeve sighed softly, sadly. "I assume Kaillyr has a similar product in some way, or your pyreflies are the result of him not having one. By taking it, we set ourselves on a very short path to destruction. That was what we'd been trying to fix when the President blew the Planet to kingdom come. I think I can safely say we _all_ agree not to go back to that source of energy, knowing what it will cause."

"Is that...true of all planets?" Tidus asked, looking a little ill.

"Since it's taking the energy of the very thing sustaining the world, I would assume so, to greater or lesser degrees depending on the world in question," Rufus put in, his tone dry. "Let me guess—some of your scientists and engineers have begun looking into such a source of energy, not knowing what it would lead to, only that it would produce a massive quantity of energy for your people?"

"That about sums it up," Tidus agreed. "Yuna and I can tell them to put work on the project on hold until we get there with your data on Mako energy."

"We'll have to work quickly to provide you that data, then," Reeve said.

"I can do it!" a new voice piped up as Libby jumped onto the table. "All my databanks are still full, and I have most of the Mako and energy data stored. All Eden has to do is unlock my system for you, and if you have a recording device, you'll be able to copy it."

"Libby!" Reeve gaped at the robot, having previously not actively realized she was there. "First, I'm really glad you're here, but—how? Why? You're a robot, not a—"

"Aeris said she qualifies as a sentient being which Minerva registered as such," Tseng put in, tone amused. "Congratulations, Reeve. You've successfully created an artificial intelligence with both sentience and a soul so real they qualify as such to a planetary entity."

Everyone except the Cetra, Eden, and Genesis (who all looked amused) gaped at Libby and her creator in amazement as Reeve himself just sat there in stunned shock.

"Er—does that mean he's sort of Libby's father?" Karru asked suddenly, not quite following what the discussion was about.

"The Al Bhed will love you forever if you teach us to do that!" Rikku suddenly grinned. "And she's _so cute_ , too! We'd _love_ to have 'kids' like those!"

"Ugh..." Reeve muttered suddenly, then sighed. "Yes, they're just like real kids, and I love every one of them dearly, but you need to realize something, Rikku. My creations are for people who _can't have kids of their own_ , not ones who _can_ , because if all of you had to raise these guys, you'd never _want_ to give birth to your own. Your people would dwindle and die out. People who hadn't planned on having families to start with could maybe also take one, since they wouldn't have been part of your parental count in the first place, but really... _Think_ about this, Rikku. You _know_ how hard it is to raise kids of your own if Karru's really your direct descendant, so this isn't to be taken lightly, even one acting as a working companion. They're still all _going_ to be child-like, no matter _how_ well-programmed they are."

"Don't they behave that way because you _program_ them to?" Rikku frowned.

"They don't," Shelke put in, making the others look at her, most of them with derision. "I have SND, or synaptic net dive—I can go right into their programming from inside it and make things happen which normally wouldn't. I helped _make_ Libby and another, cat-like one called Stray Hope. They both still behave like children, even though I could adjust their algorithms to keep them from fighting with one another. And apparently, even _that's_ not completely fool-proof, because they _still_ have differences of opinion sometimes and get into—thankfully—minor arguments. But really—they're only a few months old, and even Reeve's oldest Cait Sith models are only about six or seven years old. If they're sentient, they _still_ have to learn to grow up, it's just that Libby and Stray Hope do it faster than the other Cait Siths."

"And all of that is absolutely true," Reeve added dryly when it looked like some of the others were going to negate her words. "I have a more minor form of SND than Shelke, but I _do_ also have it, so I know what she means about their programming. I've advanced them as much as I can, but...Yuna, what are your impressions of Eden after the time you've spent with him?"

The woman blinked in surprise, then recognition, and she replied, "He's wonderfully capable and intelligent, and learns very quickly, but at the end of the day, he's not so different from any other sixteen or seventeen-year-old, with the same need to grow into his wisdom and the same child-like behaviors while he does so. Intelligence and wisdom aren't the same thing, and the latter still needs to be learned through real world experience as much as through lessons from elders. Part of the purpose of the Summoners' Pilgrimage is for exactly that, to give them the necessary experience to gain wisdom. It would be logical for an intelligent machine to learn that wisdom if even a certifiable genius needs to do so."

Her gaze then moved to Rikku and she said, "I see his point, but I also wouldn't try to restrict who could get one so much. I don't think you should encourage all Al Bhed to have one, even if they're capable of doing so, I think it should still be mainly restricted to those who have a valid reason to have one, or those who simply want a companion after they've had what family they're going to. We'll work out the details later, when we discuss their creation with Reeve after we're done here, all right, Rikku?" When Rikku pouted but didn't reply, Yuna faced Reeve and Libby and said, "As for a recording device, if Minerva is letting us keep enough of our pyreflies to form Spheres at will, it should be easy enough to copy all of her data to one. I know the method well after my time as a Sphere Hunter."

Reeve turned to look at Thaldras, who gave a nod, then looked back at Yuna to tell her, "Apparently, yes, that's the case. What do you need to prepare?"

"Nothing much. I can formulate the base at the start of her data sharing," Yuna said in mild amusement.

With another nod, Reeve looked at Eden and said, "Eden, we'll need you to unlock her data stores for us, please."

Rising, the blond Turk moved over to the table and beckoned Libby into his arms so he could whisper to her, then she jumped back to the table and projected the image of the Gaian world globe with the Lifestream lines and the Reactors charted on it. Yuna placed her wrist on the table, hand raised with the fingers a few inches above the surface, and under her fingers formed a glowing orb in a pale blue color. (2)

"I'm ready. The Sphere itself has speed controls, so you can share the data fairly quickly, unless it's something like an actual scrolling image or a real-time scenario," Yuna told the little robot.

Ears twitching, Libby agreed, "Okay, then." From there, most of the images passed by very quickly.

 **Notes:**

(1) Kaillyr is obviously a created name, not the 'actual' name of Spira's entity, since a name was never given to the entity in the FFX story. It's a combination of two ocean/sea/water names, Kai and Llyr, and somehow, this combination just seemed to work for me to create a name comparable to Minerva's without sounding too out of place for Spira. And I just thought it had a nice flow to it, though I ended up having to test it and a few other names in the document to see how they 'felt' in use. Thanks again for your help with that, Khait Khepri!

(2) I have no idea if this is actually how a Sphere is created, though I assume by the fact that they ARE made of pyreflies that it should be possible to 'just create one' in this manner, assuming the person has some idea it can be done and there's enough surrounding energy to do so. Given how many Spheres in FFX/X-2 were noted to have formed just because energy gathered in a place with strong emotion, it would be a logical assumption. Yuna wasn't shown to have 'made' any Spheres in the time she spent as a Sphere Hunter in FFX-2, but to me, it should have been something she'd learned in the process, and teaches to others if she feels there's a reason the person should know it.


	62. 58-Rebuilding

Rebuilding

Later in the evening of the same day they'd found out the general state of the world and how Minerva and Kaillyr planned to handle it, Tseng had found his way to the shore looking out over the wreckage of the Shadowterra. There, he'd found a place to sit and just stare out over the beach and ocean marred by twisted metal. As much as he knew it wasn't actually his fault the airship had been damaged, he couldn't help but feel guilt over it—even if it hadn't been intentional, his power had still been what had damaged it. And then, he hadn't even been able to help rescue the people because he'd been unconscious after expending the same energy which had done the damage.

It was foolishness to feel guilt over it, and he knew it—he just had to get his emotions and the little part of him which had never recovered from what had been done to him and his family to accept that fact.

A presence behind him and moving soundlessly in his direction caused him to turn his head just enough to see who it was, and he was both faintly surprised and somewhat resigned to it when he saw who was there. Had Gaia remained intact, this meeting would never have happened, but now that the situation had changed, he knew his cousin, Emperor Godo, couldn't refrain from it. Or, more accurately, the man was a second cousin to him. Not that it especially mattered at this point, so he turned back to his view.

For a few minutes after Godo had joined him, the older man just stood silently beside him, apparently wrapped in his own thoughts. Finally, the man said in Wutain, "I am quite certain you know this wasn't your fault...Ren Kaoin."

With a small sigh, Tseng agreed, also in Wutain, "My mind knows it. The rest of me needs to—catch up to my mind. Why do you insist on this? I already told you through Eden that I'm not the child you once knew, and the child you once knew is dead."

Silence fell for a minute, then Godo surprised him by saying, "All children 'die' to be replaced by adults who are intrinsically different from them. You simply underwent the process sooner than most. I would never have wished such suffering on the person I most hated, and it was devastating to me to lose my whole family outside my wife and daughter. When Kasumi died, I had lost the ability to be a father to a little girl who was hurting as much as I was—Yufi didn't deserve that from me. Now I realize at least some of my errors, and I would like to rectify them. No, you will never be the child I remember, but I would like to know the man you are now, Tseng."

Turning his head to look up at the man, Tseng thought about the words, the request. Was it something he could bring himself to do after so many years of thinking the man had ordered the attack on his family? He couldn't say it was hatred he felt, as Aeris had at least cured him of thinking hatred somehow helped him, but what he felt still produced a lack of trust and a desire to be anywhere but in Godo's presence. Looking forward to the ocean again, the Turk asked, "You _do_ realize I've lived the last ten years thinking you had sent Crescent Unit with _his_ guards to attack us, right?"

Godo released a pained sigh. "That was another error of mine—not paying close enough attention to my own soldiers to realize some had their own agenda which wasn't in line with mine. I can never apologize enough for the suffering my lacks caused you and your family."

For a few long moments, Tseng sat silently as he pondered the best response he could give. It wasn't an easy decision—like Godo, he had lost his whole family that day. What made him hesitate to refuse the request entirely was the reality of their new situation, everything from him having his mother returned to him to the realization that holding his dislike of a man he now knew was innocent would harm their whole society in the long run. It wasn't due to leadership where the harm came, it was due to the same elements they had been trying to change—people's suffering and their tolerance. If one of their own acknowledged 'leaders' couldn't show forgiveness to someone proven innocent, things didn't bode well for everyone else.

Finally, he said, "I can't promise we'll ever be more than friendly acquaintances, but we can try to gradually get to know one another again."

"Thank you," the man said with so much gratitude Tseng had to swallow hard as he felt moisture prickling the corners of his eyes.

From there, the discussion turned more general, both of them slowly getting caught up with one another's lives after so long.

FoW

Yuna and Hana were sitting on the shuttle they'd arrived in, Hana flipping through several Memory Sphere records of people Yuna and Tidus had met in recent years as she tried to decide who her last Spiran Guardian would be. The two had already discussed the Guardians she wanted to take on her Pilgrimage, and while they had agreed to three Spirans and three Gaians, that still left the question of who to take. Hana planned to ask Sora, but not only did she still not know who her last Spiran would be, she had no idea who the other two Gaians would be. While she could have left on her Pilgrimage one or two short on Guardians, assuming she would find the remaining one or two while traveling, she couldn't leave three short—it would be far too dangerous in a largely new and changed environment.

"Hana, there's something I've been thinking about and would like to ask you to help me with," Yuna said suddenly as she turned to face her, a Sphere of her own sitting in her lap.

Looking up in surprise, the sixteen-year-old asked, "What's that, Aunt Yuna?"

"I've been looking at a lot of the data I've been receiving from around Spira, reviewing what I know of the new territories as well as the old ones," Yuna began. "After the Steam War, my Guardians and I set out on another Pilgrimage to see the changes to the world and try to work out some solutions to some of the problems we had developed. The world, while most coastlines hadn't changed, was a vastly different place, and it seems we're now in that situation again. The big difference this time is that I know trying to go on a Pilgrimage in a situation of society's restructuring and rebuilding is both foolish and foolhardy—we had created many of our own problems by going too soon after so much had changed. Nothing had had time to stabilize."

For a moment, Yuna paused, turning to look out the shuttle window for a minute, then looked back at Hana, who had waited patiently for her to actually ask something.

"In this case, we now also have a lot of people we know very little about who also need homes and someone to teach them about this world in general while they adapt and build their homes. While travel will have to happen, I don't believe this can be put off in the name of a Pilgrimage. On the other hand, now that you have the status of a Summoner, I would actually be happy to have your help trying to teach Eden wisdom and acceptance—I think you sharing with him some of your perspective as someone close to him in age will help him a great deal. At the same time, you would be able to help guide them while you keep looking for your Guardians," the older woman explained.

With a small frown, Hana asked a little darkly, "How long are you expecting me to wait?"

"In this case, you won't be 'waiting'," Yuna replied evenly. "You'll be working, as a Summoner teaching an apprentice." Hana's eyes widened slightly at the words. "And my thought is that Eden is intrinsically incapable of staying rooted in one place for a very long period of time. Assuming he has reached a reasonable ability and inner peace by the time things have mostly settled, I'd transfer his apprenticeship to your care and send him on your Pilgrimage with you, his time to be given the status of a Summoner falling to your hands. I anticipate six months to a year, likely not much longer, before a Pilgrimage would be feasible, and in that case, several Summoners would likely be doing the same. By then, we may also know if there are other Gaian Summoners or if those will largely begin appearing in the next generation, the first to be born here."

Before Hana could say anything to the words, Yuna added, "This will also give Karru time to learn how to fight properly—she can't do that in a day, and as you said, she's in need of those lessons before you leave or her life would be in danger. Rikku and Eden—and others amongst the Turks—have offered to teach her, but even Rikku admitted she'd likely need six months or more to bring Karru to a point where she could hold her own against some of the weaker fiends. Well, monsters now. She also needs to learn the combat version of the data theft she's already mastered, and like her combat skills, Rikku can't teach her that in a day. I would hope the safety of your Guardians is more important to you than your own desire to leave the nest."

Both Summoners traded looks for a minute before Hana looked away, knowing she couldn't endanger Karru that way—she cared about her far too much, and things wouldn't go well if she and her other Guardians actually had to protect one of their number. Also, Yuna could just as easily revoke her Summoner's status if she showed such a blatant lack of caring for another human—that sort of thing was a terrible trait to have as a Summoner, and even she had looked in disgust at Summoners who had done such things. It wasn't that she didn't care, it just felt like she was never going to be allowed to leave.

"So this largely depends on Karru's and Eden's progress in the skills they need to learn, is what you're saying, Aunt Yuna?" the younger woman finally asked, looking back at the older.

"Yes, to a degree. It's possible things will settle down faster than they normally would because of the new distribution of planetary power we have now, so I won't discount the possibility of you leaving soon after Karru is deemed fit to go. If you've found at least four of your six Guardians by then, you would be able to set out," Yuna allowed, smiling faintly. "And in the meantime, you still will have plenty of work to do in several places around the world. All of those tasks would be ones performed by full Summoners, not apprentices. This experience will be invaluable to you for when you've completed your Pilgrimage and are ready to work independently."

Admittedly, getting some of that experience while she still had active guidance was something Hana didn't think she'd mind, especially not after having seen how badly some Summoners had managed to ruin things before they figured out how to do them. Teaching an apprentice was one of the things they could easily ruin.

Finally, she said, "I think I can live with that for the time being. Though, I reserve the right to refuse to take Eden as my apprentice. He's mostly not hard to get along with, but I don't think I could ever be enough of an authority figure to him for him to listen when I'm trying to stop him from doing something really stupid, and that assumes I'll even _know_ it's stupid before he does it. Taking an apprentice so soon after gaining my own status as a Summoner isn't a great idea, Aunt Yuna."

After a silence, the woman gave a smile and nod as she answered, "We'll see how it goes, then. In the meantime, there's still a lot in need of doing and not nearly enough people to get it done. You may even wish you could go back to being an apprentice before too long."

"No, I don't think _that_ will happen," Hana replied in amusement. "If I have time now to decide on other Guardians, I'll return these to you and head out to see how Karru and Koln are doing." At Yuna's nod, Hana set the Spheres back in the box they had been kept in and left the shuttle to find her two registered Guardians.

When she did, she saw a black haired lady Turk who fought with knives sparring with Karru while Rikku, Eden, Koln, and a few others watched, then blinked as she saw the very young Gaian girl, Shelke, playing with a pair of magi-edge daggers off to one side. Sitting beside Koln, she watched the practice...and realized very quickly that Karru had truly not been given much for combat training, even at her age. If she'd been nine or ten, she'd have understood her not having much skill, but as things stood, her only real staying points were her overall stamina and her reflexes.

"So, what's the plan?" Koln asked her suddenly. "Besides needing to wait a few months before Karru's ready to go, thanks in great part to Captain Sanni."

"You don't seem surprised by the wait," Hana commented in amusement.

"I was on the Aeroterra for a good part of my life—we'd already retreated to it before the Sundering turned deadly five years ago," Koln answered. "Karru has been begging for combat lessons for three years already, and all of us jet fighters were ordered not to teach her. The only one who seemed to be able to get away with it for short times and infrequently was Tarric, and he died in the fiend attack here. I knew very well when I agreed that we'd need to wait for some months before she'd be ready to leave."

"Well, yes. Apparently the timeline for her is about six months," Hana replied. "We may have to wait longer, depending on the state of the world and how quickly things settle down. Also, since Aunt Yuna is hoping I'll be able to take Eden with me, his progress is a factor in the time. We're looking at sometime between six months and a year, but Aunt Yuna's sure we'll have plenty of work in the meantime. Why did Captain Sanni refuse to let her learn to fight?"

Sighing, Koln answered, "I think it was her way of trying to keep her safe—if she didn't know how to fight, she was less likely to do what she did in this battle, and less likely to almost get herself killed. Or so the logical response would be. The Captain should know Al Bhed don't tend to operate on logic the way the rest of us define it, especially not kids who were encouraged to act on Al Bhed emotion."

Hana's eyes widened in horror, but before she could reply, she heard a panicked, "Shelke!" followed immediately by a different, alarmed shout of, "Look out!" Even as she was still turning her head to look, there was a loud clang and a yelp, then everyone froze to stare in shock at what they saw.

Shelke was standing with her legs braced, the daggers she'd been playing with crossed in front of her and activated as they blocked the normal daggers Karru had been practicing with. Karru looked stunned for a few more moments, then she yelped (again, as she'd been the one to yelp before) and pulled back, dropping the daggers and holding her smoking hands up in front of her face. When Karru swayed, the lady Turk caught her around the shoulders and spoke softly to her for a moment. At that point, Eden joined them and cast healing on Karru's hands so they stopped smoking, and Hana and Koln both rose to join them.

"What happened?" Hana asked Karru gently.

The younger girl looked up at her with a pained expression, then looked away and said in a soft, pained tone, "You might have to choose someone else to be your Guardian...Instead of me..."

"To be clear on this, Karru, we're not going to be leaving for at least six months, and that's only _partly_ because you still need training," Hana told her dryly. "Look at me, Karru?" When the pained, green eyes met hers, she said, "You aren't at fault for Captain Sanni refusing to let you train in combat. There are a lot of reasons we can't leave right away, and it's because of those other things that you have time to train. Use it well so you'll be ready to go when it's time, okay? I really would rather have you than someone else."

Karru blinked and managed to stand straight, then gave a small nod and agreed, "I'll work hard, then."

The older woman smiled and nodded, then asked, "So what actually happened?"

"Illis is, like, super-strong, a lot like fighting Aunt Rikku," the younger girl answered. "She knocked me to the side and I'd been going so fast in a charge attack that when I slipped off her blades, I couldn't stop myself, and Shelke was in the way. But then she—How did you _do_ that?" Karru began, then abruptly spun to face the nine-year-old to as she asked the whining question. When Shelke just looked confused, the older girl whined, "I'm older, bigger, and stronger, and even with magi-edge daggers, I should have been able to overpower you, knock you right down!"

"Er..." Shelke began, looking put out. "I had been kidnapped and taken to a bad place with very strong and very cruel people. I had to...If I wanted to have any sort of peace, or at least to not be beaten all the time, and if I wanted to eat or sleep in a bed, I had to learn what they wanted me to learn. They wanted me to learn to duel wield daggers, so I learned to transfer the weight of larger, stronger attackers to stay on my own feet and keep fighting. That's why you couldn't knock me over. Sorry about your hands, though. It was—just instinct when I felt the danger."

Several people paled at the words as Eden reached over to ruffle her hair. "You did very well, Shelke. Good job."

The girl blushed and smiled faintly at the words, then gave a small nod. "I still don't much like fighting, though."

"No one's asking you to," the blond young man answered in amusement. "Well, Yufi might have, but she's not here right now, and none of us will ask you to. Though, it might help Karru if you instruct her in your actual technique so she has a better idea of how to do that to her own opponents."

After a short pause, Shelke gave another small nod and agreed, "I can do that, I think." Her gaze then moved to Karru as she asked, "If you're okay with it, Karru?"

"Yes, please!" the older girl immediately replied eagerly, then hopped forward and caught the younger girl's wrist to drag her away as she called over her shoulder, "We'll try again tomorrow, okay, Illis? Thanks a bunch!" Then, the two girls were gone, leaving behind several shocked adults and young adults.

Eden then snorted and said, "That figures. I guess today's lesson is over, Illis."

"So it seems," the woman agreed in amusement. "Well, then, I'm going to check back with Tseng to see if there's anything else he'd like me to do. See you later, Eden."

She walked away to similar parting words from him, and Hana said, "Well, I guess that's actually a good thing." She faced Koln and said, "We should compare some of our notes for what skills we have readily available."

"That's fine," he agreed, so the two of them also parted ways with the others.

FoW

The next day, groups of people began moving over to the new continent, which they were collectively referring to as the 'continent of Gaia', apparently much to Minerva's amusement. It wasn't hard to name the new land, as it was being appropriated by the Gaians, and the Gaians quickly learned to refer to the northern and southern portions of Spira's original lands as Wilderia and Djose, respectively. Every time people were moved to the new land, more people were released from the Omega to join their fellow Gaians on Spira, but those were still mostly work, building, and farming crews, with only some of the active engineers and programmers they had available.

Yuna was looking for Eden for another lesson, only to realize she had no clue where to look for him, and he was in none of the places he would usually be. Finally, she found Carbuncle and asked the Summon to show her where he was, and the creature led her out to the shore, where the blond was sitting, staring at one of the holes a Geo type fiend had put in the stone barrier around the island. She observed him for a moment, rarely seeing him in less than his full uniform; right then, he wore the black pants, rolled up to the knee, and the white shirt, most of the buttons open and the sleeves rolled up to the elbow. His hair was also down, and it was largely by his metal leg that she knew it was him, as from behind, he looked like a different person.

As she watched, he suddenly rose and waded out to the stone perimeter spikes, then she saw a bright flash of light—and the hole in the barrier had been filled in with spikes like the ones around them! She had known magic could do many very impressive things, but she'd rarely seen something so incredible. When he returned to the shore, she approached him, causing him to blink at her for a minute before making his way back to where he'd been sitting. As he sat (it was only then when Yuna realized the rest of his uniform was sitting to one side of him), she sat to his free side, feeling like something was...off.

"So...What brought on that impressive display?" she asked him gently, sounding faintly amused.

He made a small face and replied, "It's not a display, it's for the safety of the people who will be staying here. That's why I opted out of going with the first group to the new continent—so I could find and fix the holes. Well, maybe not the one the...Sin-level fiend created, since it's huge, but all the smaller ones. The one large one will be easier to defend that way."

"Hmm...And, as much as that's a good point, why do you feel you need to?"

"... _Some_ one has to."

"Why _you_ , Eden?"

"Because it's what I do!"

She realized he was getting upset with being questioned, so she knew the reply wasn't so simple. "Penance, then?" Yuna asked softly. When he drew in a sharp breath, she asked, "For what in particular?"

"You have to ask when I have a list a mile long to make up for?" Eden asked bitterly.

"You do, in your own mind," she agreed mildly. "You made up for what happened with your brother, and Nina's soul isn't your crime to bear. No, something more specific is on your mind right now, isn't it?"

After a long silence, Eden sighed and admitted, "As much as I know I had to kill all the people in Deepground, the 'failed experiments', I feel...like I'll never be able to make up for that..."

Yuna was quiet for a minute as she assessed the words, then told him quietly, "I've lived for so long there's nearly nothing I've yet to experience. While it wasn't on a scale as grand as yours, there was a time when a pair of scientists had decided they had the right to kidnap and experiment on anyone they wanted, to get the results they wanted. Even though a few came through it sane and able to live a...mostly normal life after that, the majority didn't. My greatest regret in that situation wasn't having to end so many lives, it was the fact that I only became aware of the problem when Rikku was taken to be used in their experiments and it was a race against time to reach her."

She paused for a moment as Eden turned to look at her questioningly, then went on, "It felt to me almost like I hadn't cared until someone I care about very much was in danger. Even though my mind knows finding out things like that is mostly hit-and-miss, my emotions still say I shouldn't have needed Rikku to be in danger to have found out and fixed it. More people would have been sane by the time I got there if I'd only gotten there sooner, fewer would have been taken prisoner, the situation wouldn't have been so dire. I could only act on what I knew, and no one was telling me there was a problem with people going missing—the people who _should_ have been taking care of things literally _didn't care_ about all those people. As such, many more people suffered and had to be killed than if I'd known sooner."

Eden sighed and asked, "Then how do you just—not react to it intrinsically?"

"You don't. You face it and acknowledge there was nothing you could have done differently—sometimes, that's really the only way. Of course, other options are preferable, but when things are so bad all you can do is feel pity for them, they're too far gone to do anything else with."

"...I thought I was a horrible person for really not being able to feel anything more than pity for them..."

"No, that's just a symptom of your own mind and soul already knowing there's no other option. It isn't wrong—if you had literally felt _nothing_ , _then_ I would be worried."

Silence fell for several minutes, then Eden commented, "You need your own group of Turks."

"I do?"

"It's our _business_ to know, or to find out, about things like that and make sure they're known and dealt with. Sounds like 'hit-and-miss' doesn't work for you any more than it did for us, so now you _need_ people trained to _find out_ those things and who are loyal to _you_ first and foremost."

Yuna blinked at him, then chuckled and asked, "Are you offering to teach some of ours those skills?"

"That's not my decision. Talk with Tseng and Rufus about it."

With another chuckle, she agreed, "I will, then."


	63. 59-Re-Establishing

**A/N:** No, this isn't the last chapter of FoW, even though the end of it sort of sounds that way. Though, from here, we're moving into the final arc of this story line, so...

Re-Establishing

Eden took the remainder of the day to go around to all the openings the Geos had broken in the spiked barrier around the island, Yuna—and later, Hana, Karru, and Koln—joining him. The other three had joined him after lunch, and the first time he repaired a hole after they joined him, Koln gave an impressed whistle and Karru gaped, "How did you _do_ that?"

Hana, her gaze amused, answered, "The same way he and Genesis make paper and charcoal to write with, Karru." When the younger girl turned to stare at her in puzzled amazement, she added, "This is just on a grander scale, so looks more impressive."

"But there's no array!" Karru protested.

"Magic doesn't need a drawn array," Yuna told her in a dry tone. "But yes, the use of such skills on such a level is still impressive. It's rare to find someone so capable."

"Rare? Like, _never_ ," Koln put in dryly, his expression amused.

"I've met three others so capable," Yuna said, expression oddly smug. When the three younger Spirans looked at her in shock and Eden gave her a questioning look, she said, "One shows up about once every thousand years. Eden may be 'in addition to' the usual Spiran one we have, though. Also since it seems Genesis has similar skills, which would already make two this millennium."

"There are really Spirans who can do what Genesis and I do?" Eden blinked in surprise.

"Rarely, yes," Yuna agreed with a smile. "Shall I leave these three with you while I see if Rufus has time to speak with me around his plans to send people over to Gaia?"

His brow quirked as he asked, "Why are you even _asking_ me that? They can decide for themselves if they want to hang around with me while I work or not."

She chuckled. "There always existed the possibility you'd want me to stay, or to take them with me so you can work in peace."

"Peace?" the blond Turk snorted. "If _you_ —and _they_ —weren't here, someone else _would_ be, so I don't think it matters much. Go on, then."

Nodding, the older woman headed away, even as Hana gave her head a shake and commented, "It _does_ seem your company is highly desired, Eden. I don't envy you that. And Rufus isn't really the nicest person around, so..."

With a sigh, Eden started walking along the beach in the direction of the barrier he had yet to check for holes, and the other three followed him, Hana retrieving the pieces of his uniform he wasn't wearing to carry them with her. Up until then, Yuna had been doing it, but Ed would just as easily have left them where he'd put them down to start with. It was unlikely someone would bother with them, and even if they were stolen or damaged, he could always make new ones or fix the existing ones. It wasn't a big deal to him—but apparently, it was important to the Spirans to keep the ones he already had. And since he knew why Rufus was the way he was, he didn't think it was worth arguing with them over.

"I sort of thought Rufus was a lot like my ancestor, Paine. She was one of Yuna's friends way back before Yuna became unsent," Koln commented. It was obvious he had phrased the words the way he did for the blond Turk's benefit, not for the Spirans' benefit.

After a moment, Eden realized he knew next to nothing about this woman who was obviously somehow important to these people thousands of years after she'd lived, so he asked, "What about her makes her 'like' Rufus?"

"Yeah, tell me, too! No one ever has, except that they went Sphere Hunting together for awhile!" Karru agreed eagerly.

"I don't know as much as I'd like," Koln admitted with a faint sigh. "She was a powerful warrior, but by the time Yuna met her, she came across as distant, aloof—even cold sometimes. But to offset the way she presented herself, she never left anyone behind if there was any way she could save them, and even though she often said things which were cruel, she still saved the same people she'd just been putting down. I'm the most recent inheritor of her belongings—there's not much left, though—which is where my Full Throttle and Warrior Dresspheres came from. She left a few very powerful Memory Spheres, too."

"Most Memory Spheres are rather—heart-wrenching," Hana pointed out.

"Uh...They are, but that's not what I mean," Koln answered in amusement. "I was the one to inherit her things not because I was 'next in line' legally—about fifteen people fit that qualification these days. No, I inherited her things because I could _handle_ being in her memory of what shut her off, made her distant from everyone else. The others who showed up for the test all became violently ill and had to be taken to the hospital for several days to recover. I was...horrified by what I saw, but...I was able to withstand her sheer emotion pressing down on me. She was a _powerful_ woman who did _nothing_ half-way, not even sharing her memories. Even Lenne's memory attached to Yuna's Songstress Dressphere is less potent, and it notably took over Yuna's awareness more than once."

Eden stopped and turned to face him with a frown, asking, "You mean your Spheres can transfer not just knowledge, but feelings and personality, and even the creator's or user's _sentience_ to a degree?"

The others stopped as well as Koln agreed, "It can. Normally not like that—Paine and Lenne's are notable for the sheer strength of it, but others have sometimes as well. I think, if you were to create a memory of your brother becoming an Aeon or of your first sending, it would likely have the same kind of potency as theirs, though."

"Maybe it would for him," Hana agreed. "The latter especially. Now, can we get back to the original questions, about how Paine is 'like' Rufus and her Spheres?"

A pause followed, then Koln gave a wry smile and said, "The first memory, what shut her off...She had been one of the Crimson Squad Crusaders bound for the Den of Woe long before it was... _mostly_ safe to enter, and everyone became possessed and began attacking one another, friends and allies, a very literal nightmare they were aware was happening, but couldn't stop. Only four survived, one of those Paine. To top that off, their homecoming was to be an execution, which they only narrowly escaped by running. That left wounds even time barely put a dent in. And frankly, Rufus reminds me of someone who has been betrayed by someone he trusted and suffered for it, so now tends to keep all but a very few at a distance, makes himself unlikable so no one will get close enough to him to hurt him again."

Hana and Karru blinked in surprise, but Eden gave an impressed whistle and said, "His father ordered his mother's execution when he was still a child, and he witnessed it. To further it, because of his position, there were shockingly few people who weren't out to harm, use, or kill him, and his father was...a cruel man with a notable desire for absolute control and the height of greed. After all, his father is the same person who blew up Gaia."

Koln nodded his understanding as Hana and Karru both blinked, but Karru asked, "Why would his father kill his mother? That makes no sense! Didn't they love each other if they got married and had a kid?"

"Which isn't a truism," Eden replied dryly.

"A what?" the younger girl asked in complete confusion as the older two both chuckled.

"While many people _do_ marry and have children, or simply have children, because they love each other, there are people even now who do so for other, normally very bad, reasons," Hana told Karru, giving her head a small shake. "For example, out of spite, or because the family insisted after one party violated the other in some way, or for money or power."

"People _do_ that?" Karru asked, looking horrified.

The Summoner nodded at her before looking at Eden to ask, "What was her reason for marrying a man like him?"

"I don't actually know it, just that there are implications he killed her because she wasn't letting him control her or Rufus," the Turk replied in a dry tone. "All of that happened _years_ before my time with them."

The others just stared at him for a minute, so he shrugged and turned to keep walking. "What else do you know about Paine, Koln? Also, what's that—Full Throttle Dressphere? It sounds mechanical, actually, like revving an engine."

Everyone laughed as they followed him, but the other man said, "It's a dual wield warrior type with exceptionally high attack, but it's not the kind of thing to use all the time. Besides, my basic training is more of a Gunner or a Dragoon, even though I can use her Warrior and Full Throttle ones. I'm naturally a dragoon, as far as that goes."

"If you have the skill naturally, why would you use a Sphere?" the Turk blinked.

"I actually don't," the older man smirked. "The only Dresspheres I own are the ones I inherited from Paine, and there's _no_ living human who can do what Full Throttle does, so that one's _definitely_ worth it in a pinch."

"Also, there aren't enough Dresspheres in the world for every person who goes into combat or travels to have one," Hana added. "Most of the jet fighters and Summoners with their Guardians have _earned_ their skills the same way _you_ did—through hard work. Dresspheres are meant as a supplement, not a basic skill, and most who have them inherited them from somewhere down their family line, not because they're newly created in recent years."

"I see," Eden acknowledged, then turned his attention to another hole in the spike barrier around the island.

FoW

The next day, Eden agreed to go to Gaia with Rufus, and Yuna, her Guardians, and Hana and her Guardians joined them. It was a hectic day for everyone, and exhaustion was expected.

Morning, however, brought people waking violently ill. Even Eden—who wasn't known to get sick—and Hana, woke with a need to try to heave their stomachs out of their mouths. By the time they gathered with everyone else, who were mostly varying degrees of ill, it was clear this was not normal. Eden had to wonder what they were supposed to do about it—

And got his answer as he, Yuna, and Hana all lit up in swirling, red-gold bands of light which circled their bodies in a facsimile of a sphere as a voice entered their minds. They weren't the only one who lit up, as the Cetra with them also gained swirling lights in white-green, also in a spherical shape. (1) The voice Eden and the two Spiran Summoners heard was young, somehow regal, and had a tone to it which indicated a male. It was also very similar to Minerva's voice in a way, so he knew it was Kaillyr, but it was disorienting to suddenly have a voice speaking into his head.

 _:It seems the illness has begun to spread now,:_ the voice said. _:Yes, I am Kaillyr, though you may call me Kai, Yuna. You have been so integral to the world for so long and done so much good that you have become somewhat of a friend to me, even though you did not know me personally in return.:_

 _:I would rather not, as that would be rude, even to a friend,:_ Yuna replied somewhat dazedly. _:And given who and what you are, well...I would rather err on the side of more respect rather than less.:_

Kaillyr chuckled into their minds, as did Hana. _:Be that as it may, I have communicated with you now to direct you to the plants you will need and imprint the knowledge of the immediate preparation required to save as many lives as possible. You do not have long, and it will be impossible to save all of the afflicted, though hopefully this direct assistance will even the odds more. Here, and good luck.:_ As he silenced, their minds were bombarded with data on exactly what the plants looked like, what route would take them to the nearest ones most quickly, and what would be needed to prepare them, normally into teas.

And Aeris and the other Cetra lived with this all their lives, at all times? Eden had a new respect for them.

However, none of them especially had time to think about anything like that, as they had things they had to do before no one was fit to do them any longer. The worst part for Eden, pushing him far ahead of the others, was the memory of how illness had claimed his mother's life, and he didn't want to lose anyone else that way. He sort of knew it would be a long shot to save everyone he knew, but the sooner he got remedies to the afflicted, the more likely they were to survive. He knew even the best medicine couldn't save everyone, but still...

The next few weeks passed quickly and chaotically. In that time, Spiran airships came and went in large numbers, mostly ferrying people around or bringing spare medicines, supplies, or machines, the last usually older models they had since upgraded from. The Gaians didn't mind, since the older models made more sense to them at a glance than the newer ones did. Primarily, the various Gaian combat personnel and builders were shuttled to Gaia so they could scout out and clear some areas to prepare for the coming city-building, or the Spirans were returning to their continent to reestablish their own homes. Assuming they were fit to be moved.

Human-to-human diseases were bad enough to work with, but the effect was far less in that case than in the case of non-human-to-human or humanoid-to-human diseases, and those were also the most deadly. The reverse was also true, the human-to-non-human or human-to-humanoid options. While Minerva's and Kaillyr's directions had been a good start, they had also had to quickly improvise new medicines from the ones they'd originally been given. Of all of them, only Shelke and the unsent got absolutely nothing in the way of illness or disease. In the girl's case, it was most likely because of how she'd arrived with them and how it had been fixed—the things affecting everyone else weren't _able_ to affect her. It was simpler for the unsent—they were already 'dead' and these sorts of illnesses couldn't really do much more than give them a common cold or flu, since the diseases weren't magics.

Of those Eden knew who had died, the hardest blow for him was when Verdot fell ill, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't save him—his body had already taken so much damage it wasn't able to work quickly enough to recover. For Felicia, losing her father so soon after getting her memory back and finding him again was so debilitating they nearly lost her, too. Only Shears was able to pull her back and remind her she still had reasons to live, something Eden had also had to be reminded of before he descended into guilt over the loss as well. Kariya had been the next closest call of the ones Ed knew, as the rest were either young and healthy enough to pull through or were loaded with Mako or other experimental boosts which helped them recover faster.

That wasn't to say Verdot was the only death—far from it. Several of every group and race on Spira at that time died. It was only because of Yuna reminding Eden that he wasn't omnipotent—and of Kaillyr's statement that not everyone could be saved—which helped him past the compounding of the guilt he felt. Just Verdot's death had been bad enough, but...While Shears' words would have been enough for him to pull through the one death with little issue, so many more deaths were triggering all the wrong memories for him. At that point, Yuna was a God-send, and he was suddenly thankful to be her apprentice.

In the meantime, Yuna's discussion with Rufus and Tseng had resulted in them realizing the Turks currently didn't have much to do, so they agreed to lend her their support. Tseng planned to stay close to Rufus, along with Reno and Kariya, but the other Turks were interested in going to Wilderia and Djose to see what their new world was like. While they would initially act as an information network for Yuna (and share what they learned with Tseng and Rufus, a fact Yuna knew and agreed to), eventually they would start finding suitable Spirans to teach their skills to. Doing so would provide Yuna with her own group of loyal 'Turks' until she felt they weren't needed any longer.

Needless to say, the Turks very quickly established an information network across the Spiran lands. Eden was the key data collector as he was always where Yuna was for his training, and was easily able to pass it on to her. Their network helped her quickly stop things like large-scale crimes, sometimes even small ones, and definitely let her know when and where there were people intending harm. The number of things they uncovered for her, things which she _should_ have been being told about, in just a few short weeks made her grateful for having their assistance.

Once the major round of disease and illness passed, work proceeded as usual, and everyone was either building new towns or rebuilding the various destroyed towns.

While the Farplane Gate could have been returned to Macalania Forest and the re-forming Guadosalam, the Guado decided to leave it on the Farterra with several of their kind to watch over it. With the re-establishing of the communities on the Spiran continent and the building of more than one community on the Gaian one, a new world map began to take form, with both new and old names on it, across the whole map.

In Wilderia and Djose, most of the names were familiar to the Spirans, and in some cases, they reverted to older or modified names of places which had once existed. New Zanarkand was being rebuilt by its former inhabitants, and had been renamed Neo Zanarkand, while the Zan-Bev Fort had reverted to its original name of Bevelle, for example. Towns like Besaid and Kilika Port were also rebuilt, restoring those old names to active use as their former townspeople began to repopulate them.

As for Gaia, their first towns were named by Wutains and the former residents of Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga in the south, and by Rufus and the people of Junon in the north. Most of the mountain dwellers—people from Nibelheim and Icicle Inn—quickly migrated into the mountains, establishing for them a total of five towns and a reasonable trade network. The five towns were named Hourai (2), Gonyon (3), New Midgar (4), Frelsa (5), and Fjallheim (6), respectively. The island where Omega Rock was had been named Erva Eyja, or Earth's Island (7), by the Cetra and Motos to directly reference Minerva.

It was almost six months after their arrival when Minerva finally released the rest of the civilians and children from Omega Rock, including the various Cait Siths—of which there were five, with the one who had been watching over Shalua and Shelke—and the modified Cait Siths, Elf (the one which had been left with Shears and Felicia) and Stray Hope. Rather than allow them to fall ill after about a week of being out and about, they were given the remedies as soon as they began appearing, resulting in them mostly only becoming marginally ill, not strongly diseased. They also all survived, except for one very sickly child.

Yufi was immediately all over the place, and was only brought to heel by Wakka forcibly using up her energy—repeatedly—by running her around the island or making her swim the length of the shoreline until she had to beg to be allowed to rest. The man kept up with her without showing signs of tiring, making her wary of him very quickly, though she didn't actually mind it when he started teaching her how to play blitzball...if he hadn't kept her at it just as long as he made her run or swim laps. She started modifying her own actions and energy output just to keep him from running her ragged, and started finding ways to harmlessly use up all the excess energy. In that, Zack took pity on her and taught her how to push energy into Materia so they Mastered quickly.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for them to be overflowing with Mastered Materia.

In the meantime, all the civilians and children were shuttled over to Gaia to find their parents and homes, and life was starting to get back to normal, towns were starting to look like real communities, and happy, relieved families were being all the more productive. Some of those released from Omega Rock had even been infants, and they only knew which couples to give them to because Minerva had told them where both the genetic and energy ties were.

All in all, things were going well for the world.

 **Notes (Sorry they're so long! The only really important one is the first one.):**

(1) This effect was generally coined from Tales of the Abyss, where the planetary entity, Lorelei, created a glowing, golden orb with cycling bands around the main character, Luke, when he was talking with him. I thought it was a reasonable, visible sign, though Minerva and Kaillyr both aren't oriented to pure gold, so...No literal glowing orb here, just the circling bands indicating one, and the colors are different to suit these two entities.

(2) 'Wutai' is a modification to a very old name for Japan to begin with, so I went with another 'alternate' name for Japan which would be an old 'on-kun', or Chinese-based, reading for the characters. I figured it would be appropriate here. This town is basically right on the southernmost point of the continent coast.

(3) This, if anyone missed it, is a merging of the 'Gon' from Gongaga and the 'yon' from Cosmo Canyon. Those are the two primary communities living there, who will be staying there even after more communities for the Banora/Mideelers and Corelers and Costa del Solers will be built. This is essentially a small, peaked mountain covered in mixed jungle and grassy, savannah-like meadows and riddled with caves and ravines, not too far from the coast, maybe about a half-hour walk.

(4) This should be pretty obvious—it's Rufus Shinra, after all, and he's still going to be pining for home. In this case, while it's on the coast and they can build a port to the north, they're sort of on a twenty-foot-high ocean cliff which is also a plateau to the south with a slope to the lower plains to the east. The path leading to the port will have to be heavily modified before they can use it for more than small fishing runs, so it's not being well-developed yet.

(5) Frelsa is the Icelandic word for 'liberation' (or 'free'). Since these were mainly the people of Junon, and most of those the ones oppressed below the main city of Junon, I thought they'd like to celebrate their new freedom. Also, much of the history and naming systems in FFVII are based on Nordic background, and it's a lot easier to find things in Icelandic, which stemmed from Nordic directly, than it is to find them in Nordic, so I'm improvising. Since this was on Google Translate, I'm not going to count on it being correct, so if someone actually knows Icelandic or Nordic, please feel free to PM me to correct this. Their town is west of New Midgar and out on the plains, with a less cliff-like coast to their north—it's only about five feet high, and with a small stretch of somewhat rocky shore, much like they'd had in Junon.

(6) Like (5) above, this is also an Icelandic pair of words. 'Heim' I also know for a fact is true to the Nordic and means 'home'. 'Fjall' means 'mountain' in Icelandic, and hopefully it's very similar to the Nordic word. I thought calling a town for mountain dwellers (Nibelheim and Icicle Inn, notably) 'Mountain Home' would be appropriate. They're in a valley about half-way through the mountain range, slightly closer to the north. The same note about Google Translate applies here.

(7) Erva was taken from Minerva's name, and my head-canon is that the Cetra had called her 'Min Erva' (or Mother Earth), much like their version of Jenova was Jeh-nova, the Calamity from the Skies. So, Erva would be the Cetra word for earth, as in the land, soil, and so on. Eyja is, like most of the other names I used here, Icelandic for 'island'. Same notes about Google Translate apply as for (5) and (6).


	64. 60-Raw Wound

**A/N:** In case anyone forgot, the continent the Gaians are living on now is being called Gaia—it's not a planet's name reference unless specified. :P

Raw Wound

Eden had found a rock to sit on in the garden promenade-like path between the Bevelle Temple gate and the main temple, Libby at his feet and Carbuncle exploring nearby somewhere. Right then, he had a lot on his mind, and thinking on the state of affairs over the last six months and about his current location were really just distractions. Regardless, all his mind wanted to process right then was something other than the reason he was there to start with, so he let it wander as he vaguely stared out at the view around him.

Yuna had told him the area had once been a sort of gathering place for worshipers back when Sin had been present in their lives, with the red strip down the middle being an actual carpet and the place having no greenery or decorations. It had been a cold, hard place which was intended to remind people to shun everything but the teachings of the Yevonite priests. For a long time, it had effectively stayed that way, only changing when they'd been in the phase of the Revitalization. Of the plants grown there, many were herbs used in their few rituals, such as the cleansing bath, herbs used in cooking, or medicinal plants. It was also a space open to the public to enjoy like any other park now.

Since it was late evening, the park was deserted, and Eden could sit there to think without being disturbed. He'd found very quickly that Yuna had indeed been correct to say all Spirans knew the apprentice's and Summoner's earrings and would go to them for help if something was wrong. Most of the population didn't even care if he was Spiran or Gaian, as long as he was a Summoner or in training to be one. He'd never been against helping people in general—he'd done enough of it in his life—but every time they asked him, he still had to ask himself if the request was actually one he should be abiding or not. He still couldn't tell when to help and when not to, or the best way to do so.

In his time with Yuna, they had visited several of the Spiran towns, starting with Bevelle, Luca, and Mt. Gagazet. The Ronso had quickly decided he was a worthy warrior and Summoner after seeing his skills in an unexpected fight, but the people of the other two had accepted him without question as soon as they saw his earring. He mainly lived in Bevelle with Yuna and Hana (and Koln, Karru, Rikku, and Tidus, with visits from Hikari, Genesis, and other Turks), and all three took frequent trips to Gaia. Several times, Hana had gone with Koln to Gaia to work with and teach the people there on her own, though. As Spiran towns had begun to have some semblance of a structure and population again, they had also been visiting them. The first amongst those had been Neo Zanarkand and Besaid, and it had branched out from them.

Being a mediator was _hard_.

He had a temper to start with, and plenty of energy. He also worked extensively on his arrays, making him look quite anti-social to people who had little interaction with him to begin with. To an extent, he _was_ becoming a bit anti-social, largely because even State Alchemists hadn't had the same degree of reverence or inherent presence as any Summoner, so he wasn't used to immediately being everyone's focus as soon as he entered an area. Most people didn't actually judge him as far as he could tell, but a few were very vocal about how he should be living his life.

It had surprised him for Yuna to say, "Just let them talk. It's only words, and no one ever said you _must_ abide by what they think you should be doing."

Where he most often ran into trouble was in trying to act as a literal mediator, because in that state, he couldn't choose a side—no matter how badly he wanted to. While he and Yuna had talked about times where he could, should, or may need to choose a side, his general stance in everything wasn't to judge it or choose a side, it was to help the two (or more) sides to actively listen to one another and find a solution. He could offer suggestions in many cases if all the parties involved were stumped, but couldn't make them choose what he offered or favor any one party. The only benefit to it was his ability to give them logical progression of events or the actual results if they tried to do something, often making them rethink bad plans.

It got worse when Yuna—or Hana, or Tidus, for that matter—tried to help him fix some of his mental issues. The pain and guilt he was carrying around with him were things they often discussed. Some of those discussions were also about Nina's soul which he'd sent, and it was really true that it never seemed to get easier. His progress in dealing with his first sending was apparently one of his better points, though. Many of the other things he'd done, some he hadn't even known about until Yuna had questioned him, were sources of guilt, and he'd previously spent most of his life either raging over inconsequential things to cover them up or ignoring them entirely.

She wouldn't let him keep doing so, no matter how much he wanted to.

Earlier that day, he'd been shaken to his core with an incident in town, and his reaction had brought a building down, the people in it—himself included—only surviving because Yuna had realized what was happening soon enough to order everyone out and drag him after them.

It had begun when a citizen had run to the Temple to ask for them after hearing screaming from next door, screaming which had begun in anger, then turned to horror, then—as she'd been leaving—to extreme pain. Yuna had sent a messenger to tell Ed to meet her at the Temple gates, and they had gotten there around the same time so the woman could lead them back to the place the screaming had come from. It had turned out to be a small (comparatively), single-room, research and experimental facility for medical and technological developments—things like cybernetics.

He had never thought he'd meet a 'person' who existed as a robot because their partner had basically downloaded their brain into a Sphere, then put the Sphere in place of the robotic 'brain'. It was a warped version of what he'd done to Al, and the partner it had been done to hadn't even died or been dying, let alone willing! She had barely begun to be able to move or talk, and was clearly broken by what had been done to her. She'd been able to get one word out when the one who had done it had demanded they prove he was the culprit, as there was no sign of the kinds of machines in the main lab which could have done such a thing: "Basement."

Eden had immediately tried to get to the lab below the building and had been half insane with grief and horror and rage as he'd done it.

As soon as the debris had settled, Yuna had dragged him back to the Temple, then left him alone. It didn't take much to realize he had overstepped. Badly. If he was honest with himself, he'd probably deserve it if his status as a Summoner's apprentice was revoked. Or worse, though Yuna would probably not let things progress to 'worse'.

When he felt someone join him, he knew it was Yuna, and felt he'd best brace himself to be told to pack up and go back to his own people. Not that it would be entirely bad, but...He didn't like leaving things unfinished at the best of times.

There were a few minutes of silence as he felt her sit near him, but he was staring at the ground, so details he couldn't see. Finally, she asked, "Am I correct to think you reacted to the memory of what you did to your brother?"

All he had the strength to do was nod.

Silence fell for another few moments, then she asked, "What do you think will happen now?"

With a small sigh, he said, "It wouldn't surprise me if you revoked my status."

"Why do you think I would?" Oddly, her curious tone worried him.

"I destroyed a building and nearly killed several people," he replied bitterly. "And by doing it, I also blatantly showed I can't be objective."

"All or nothing. What have we discussed about that?" was Yuna's reply.

Lifting his head to look at her in confusion, he slowly said, "...The world doesn't operate in absolutes...There are exceptions to nearly all rules...including objectivity." She was sitting on a bench near his rock, gazing at him evenly.

Nodding, the woman said, "So for now, set aside the issue of objectivity. What about you destroying the building and _nearly_ killing several people would have me revoke your status?"

"Isn't that obvious just by what those acts _were_?" he glared.

With a small shake of her head, she said, "If that's the case, my status should have been revoked the moment I summoned Titan to attack Sanni, which technically killed her."

The reply made Eden's brain stall as he tried to process what she was saying. Finally, he said, "Most of the people there were innocent of any wrong-doing, they were mainly just worried civilians trying to see who had been screaming so they could help if needed. I'd have killed them if you hadn't..."

"You would _also_ have killed _yourself_ ," Yuna replied bluntly, making him blink. "I almost wonder if a part of you _was_ actually trying to end your own life. Tell me about the parallel you drew between your brother and the woman."

For a long moment, he was quiet, then looked down with a pained expression as Libby climbed up to cling to his shoulder and hug him around the neck. "When I tried to get my brother back and put his soul in the suit of armor, I robbed him of nearly all physical senses, and even basic things like the ability to sleep. My brother may have been 'okay' with coming back, but it didn't take much for me to nearly lose him to insanity, to the thought that I had just 'created' him for my own benefit. If Winry hadn't been there, been able to compare memories with him which I didn't know, I probably would have lost him entirely. Even from the time when I decided to try to fix what I had done to us and got my auto-mail, I knew he was suffering far more than my physical pain would ever amount to."

He paused to draw in a shaky breath, then went on, "When I saw her in that body, I was...I was looking at Al, and at all the pain I had caused him, and how much I had damaged him, even when he didn't suffer the pain of the transfer—it was all a blank to him. His being taken had been accidental...But I could so easily have done it deliberately. Just like that man did to a woman who wasn't at all willing...and who had been given no more choice than I had given Al. To make matters worse, my mind jumped back to when Shou Tucker, Nina's father, had accused me of being just like him, to sacrifice the people I cared about in the name of gaining the glory of doing something no one else had. The worst part was that, even when I said he and I were nothing alike, I couldn't actually...say it with conviction...I wasn't completely sure I _wasn't_ doing that..."

Yuna sighed and replied, "So your self-guilt spiked because you weren't really seeing her, you were seeing your brother, and the raw memory of Nina's sending didn't help, because it readily calls memories of her back to your mind." When he didn't reply beyond something like a shrug, the woman asked, "Eden, at the time when Shou accused you of having your own selfish ends, you couldn't give a definitive answer, even though you tried to. Why?"

For a long time, Eden was silent, then told her, "I'm an alchemist, a scientist, by nature. I test, experiment, seek out answers to things people don't know. I find satisfaction in successfully accomplishing something new or finding a solution to something everyone had thought impossible. It's not a far cry to go from that to having put my brother in a suit of armor to prove it could be done."

"Hmm," Yuna murmured thoughtfully. "Perhaps. But what were you thinking about when you tried to bring your mother back, and when you turned your brother into an Aeon? You were a young child then. What was your reason for both?"

"...For the first, the only thing I had actively thought about was wanting my mother back...Both Al and I had really wanted to have her back, just to have her back with us...she had been everything to us, and we were little kids who were too smart and too stubborn for our own good. For my brother, it was mostly, 'Give him back to me!'" He didn't say she already knew that, because he had learned she had a tendency to teach by making the other person think about the logical progression of their own actions and feelings. If that meant he repeated something she had already heard, she apparently didn't mind if it meant he'd work his way to whatever realization she wanted him to see.

"Did you ever brag about what you had managed to accomplish with your brother being in that body?"

...That was a new question. "Uh...No." He looked back up at her slowly. "I had never thought causing him so much suffering was worth bragging about, and if I _had_ , I'd have been thrown in prison for life or executed, and he would have become an experimental subject. There was no bloody way I was going to do something even worse than I'd already done, like that, to him."

"So, while you couldn't have answered Shou's accusation properly then, could you answer it now?" Yuna asked, her tone both curious and pointed.

After a few moments, something clicked into place in his mind and he said, "I'm not like him. I never intended anyone to know what I had done to my brother, or even to my mother—I never cared about getting recognition or fame. I just wanted the people I cared about with me. If I had known what would happen to my brother before I'd done it, I'd have scrapped the idea of trying to bring Mom back in favor of keeping Al whole and healthy. Some things just aren't worth it."

"Good," Yuna told him with a small smile. "So, now that we've worked out one problem, let's move on to a more difficult one. What feeling made you try so hard to bring them both back?"

...That was also a new question. Where was she even going with the discussion? Since Eden couldn't answer what he'd asked himself, he thought about the question Yuna had asked him. It stumped him for several minutes, before realization dawned and he finally said, "Fear, I think."

"Of what?"

"...Being left alone."

"And you feared being left alone so much you justified attempting to raise the dead and turning your brother into an Aeon?"

"...Yes."

"So, too, did the man who turned his partner into that robot."

Eden almost fell from his perch as his mind reeled with the implications of what she'd just said. It took him several minutes to process the revelation, then he looked up at her dazedly and said quietly, "I recognized myself and the suffering I had caused, and I almost destroyed us both—and everyone _else_ nearby—to try to undo that horror and keep it from happening again."

She nodded. "Your emotions were far beyond your ability to manage just then. I would never have asked you to come with me if I'd had any idea what we would be walking into. Both he and the woman are now here, each in a separate room. In your case, the damage has been done and it needs to be faced. I need you to speak with him, give him your experience, and I need you to speak with her to find out her thoughts on the matter. And Eden, I need you to make both of them realize death will always happen, and to help him learn to let her go if she wants to go."

There was a long silence before the blond asked slowly, "You're not...sending me away?"

The woman actually looked faintly amused as she said, "I'm a lot of things, Eden, but wantonly foolish isn't one of them. This is part of what you need in order to heal and grow into your role, and it's part of your lessons as an apprentice. Yes, you made a mistake and endangered people—very few Summoner's apprentices are able to get through their apprenticeships without doing so. Even _I_ did, way back when. And in this case, the reason you did is more than forgivable—when I had told some of those nearly injured that you've seen this happen before and seen what it does to the victim, they all gave well wishes for your recovery for me to pass on to you once you were aware again. The lab is being searched and the rubble cleared away as we speak. Physical damage is easy to repair—mental, not so much. Do I have your agreement to face this and help them resolve it?"

For a few moments, Eden thought about it, then drew in a shaky breath and said, "I guess I'm the only one who can actually explain it to them..."

"Because of what you yourself did," she finished, and he nodded.

"Fine, I'll do it," he stated, knowing Yuna preferred to have actual agreement rather than assumed agreement.

Rising, the woman said, "I'll show you to their rooms, then. So you're aware of this, I'll be nearby, but not immediately present, and I'll only intervene or assist in something if you ask me directly. If you don't handle this yourself, you won't move forward from it enough to refrain from the same reaction a second time, should another similar situation arise."

He nodded and slipped off the rock to walk with her back into the Temple and to the rooms where she had assigned them. A few Priests were standing outside each door, quietly waiting for them to return. Eden paused momentarily by the door Yuna had indicated, even as Libby hopped to the woman's shoulder and the Priests moved aside from the door. He turned to look at the woman beside and a step behind him. She gave a nod, so he drew in a deep breath and stepped into the room to see a man with rather ordinary looks (had he really looked so plain in the lab?) who seemed more defeated than anything. The door closed behind him.

As the man looked up at him in surprise and wary near-fear, Eden scanned the room quickly, seeing how it was essentially a hexagonal-shaped room with a lower pit in the middle which housed a table with cushions set around it. If one didn't know there was a literal pit below the table, they would think it was only knee-high, not the same height as any normal table. There was a jug of water and a glass on it, and to the back of the room was a sleeping mat low to the floor and with pillow and blankets. It was sparse otherwise, and the man was sitting on the mat.

Eden moved to the table and sat as he said, "I don't blame you for being worried after the fit I threw earlier." The man blinked in surprise, but said nothing, so the blond sighed and scrubbed a hand back through his bangs. "Do you know I'm the first Gaian Summoner they found?" At the man's second surprised blink, he offered, "Would you like to know how I ended up as one?"

After a pause, the man asked, "Does it...have something to do with your 'fit'?"

Sadly, the younger man agreed, "It does."

Another pause followed, then the man said, "I would like to know."

Nodding, Eden told him all about what had happened with his mother, Al, and Nina. He told him how he'd nearly lost Al to insanity, and how badly Nina had suffered as a kept soul who'd had no choice. By the time he was done, the man's eyes had gone wide and horrified.

"Is that—I thought I was saving her from death—have I only given her a worse fate?" the man asked in a winded, pained tone.

Sighing, the blond told him, "I had known Al was suffering in that body, but even I didn't realize how much until that time. If you couldn't feel anything when you touched it, or it touched you, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't express emotions properly, what do you think would happen to you? It's like being locked in an isolation tank you can never escape from. I feared losing the people I cared about, but oddly, I had never turned it the other way and asked myself what it would be like for _them_ to lose _me_. I had never thought of doing to myself what I did to my brother. Fear of the deaths of one's loved ones is pretty one-sided, isn't it?"

For a very long time, the man just stared at him, so he finally rose from the table and began to open his mouth to say something, when the man asked quietly, "Is there a way to fix what I've done to her?"

"Only to release her to true death," the younger man sighed quietly. The man's expression turned pained. "I'll leave you to think about all of this while I see how she's doing, then return later, all right?" The man gave a small nod as he drew his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, so Eden left the room to go to the other one next door.

One of the Priests said, "Kalasi (1) has been coaching her to mostly normal speech since Yuna returned her to the Temple, so she should be able to talk with you." When the apprentice nodded, he opened the door so Eden could step inside. Kalasi, one of the lady Priests who lived in Bevelle, rose from the robot woman's side and stepped out when she saw him, closing the door behind her. A look around the room showed one identical to the man's minus the pitcher of water and glass, and the robot lay on her mat, mostly just still and unresponsive.

Sitting beside her, he asked, "Do you want to know why I threw that fit earlier?" She gave him a small nod, so he gave her the same story he'd given the man. He then sighed and said, "You had no choice in the matter, and weren't in a situation where a choice like that even should have been made. While I knew my brother enough to know he wasn't ready to move on yet, I don't know what you would like to do. There's...no way to put you back in your old body, so it's either stay like this or move on. I'm hoping, after I talked with him, that he'll release you himself if that's your wish, but if he won't, I'll do it. You don't deserve to be forced to go through what Al did."

For a few minutes, she was silent, then a tinny, almost-feminine voice which was somewhat halting and oddly-accented said, "I want...out of this...this _thing_. I'm...not a _woman_ anymore...He won't do it."

"We'll see soon," Eden said with a small, sad smile. "But either way, you won't stay in that metal shell. That's a promise."

"...Summoner," she said softly.

"I'm just an apprentice," he replied, fingering his red bead earring.

"...Do you think...he would listen to you? Really?" the robot woman asked.

"I think he may after knowing what happened to Al."

"Please find out. Hate this..."

Eden knew she'd have been crying if she could have, so he nodded and rose to leave the room. Outside, Yuna was waiting, so he said, "She wants out of that body. I really hope I got through to him, otherwise I'll free her myself." She nodded but said nothing, so he returned back to the man's room.

As soon as he walked in, the man said sadly, "I know she needs to move on, but I can't do it myself. I just...can't. Send her for me, please?"

"Will you be there when I do?" Eden asked, immediately resigned to having to do it himself, even if he had the man's permission. The man just shook his head, lowering his head to his knees as he wept quietly.

With a small sigh, the blond left again, and met Yuna's gaze again.

He felt raw. Could he really do this?

The older woman rested her hand on his shoulder and said, "You've sent on souls before. You can do it again."

"...You know?"

"He'd have left the room with you if he intended to fix his own error."

After a silence, Eden realized he still had to be the one to do this, no matter how hard it would be—he had to see it through, do for her what he'd been too stupid to do for his brother. Slowly, he drew in a deep breath and nodded, then turned to face the room the woman was in. There was barely enough room for him to do the dance there, so he would. Prolonging it wasn't something he could do. As he entered, the robot looked at him, just looked.

"He admitted you needed to move on, but said he wasn't capable of doing it himself. He left it to me," he told her. "I'd like to perform the sending now, and will dismantle anything else which needs it afterwards if necessary, if you're okay with that?"

"I am," she agreed, something looser in her voice than it had been before.

Moving into position, he began the sending dance, editing the arrays imprinting in the energy to work to dissolve the Sphere she had been bound to.

As he danced, he noticed a somewhat white-golden glow forming around her, and as he ended it, there was a flare of light before he collapsed into unconsciousness. (2)

 **Notes:**

(1) No, this name isn't important, and you don't have to remember it. I picked it completely randomly to have a name to fill in there, as there really couldn't just not be a name at that point.

(2) There are two reasons for this collapse. One is because of the 'flare of light', which you'll know the cause of next chapter (though some readers may have guessed at what this is). The other is the sheer strain this is putting on Eden.


	65. 61-A New Danger

A New Danger

Energy surging through Eden's body made him start and open his eyes—and stare uncomprehendingly at the ceiling for a moment before the muscle pain from whatever had just happened hit him. He groaned and rolled onto his side, still feeling dazed and not quite right, trying to just breathe for a few minutes as the whole effect of whatever it was eased. As it did, he noticed an additional warmth in his chest, near his core, a sense which hadn't been there before, and slowly rolled back onto his back to stare at the ceiling.

He'd seen several fayth/Aeon image anchors in the last several months. Bevelle housed about two dozen of them, just themselves, now including Auron's—the anchor was where they would return to when their Summoner's life ended, the place where they would wait for a new Summoner to visit them. Most of those were mobile plates due to proper ceremonies having created them, and each was kept in a separate room in the Temple. The result was a faint, perpetual background sound of the Hymn of the Fayth throughout the Temple as long as even a few of the fayth were there at the time, as he'd found out only a month ago when four had suddenly returned to them.

What he could see grafted into the ceiling above him, which definitely hadn't been there before, looked very much like a fayth/Aeon anchor.

It depicted a face-down woman with platinum blond hair done up in a very thick, long braid which fell past her waist in length, her body covered in a long, violet gown. The gown fell well below where her feet would have been, and the material spread widely, showing it was loose and light-weight. While he couldn't see all the details, it left space at the shoulders for large, feathered wings, the hems of those openings done in feather-like patterned gold thread. The sleeves were also long and loose, similar to the skirt, and the hem of the slightly wide neck was also done in feather-like patterned gold thread.

Of her wings, there were three off each shoulder for a total of six, and they were pure, shimmering white. One of her hands was down, but the other had been raised, passing through something like a healing array which served as most of the image's backdrop before emerging above it, hand cupping a ball of white-golden light. As it passed through the array, her arm vanished, only reappearing a few inches down from her wrist. Loose feathers were scattered around the image as well, in a way very similar to how he'd seen Genesis' and Sephiroth's wing feathers do when they slipped off their anchors on the men's wings.

Why was it on the ceiling, though?

A head appeared above him, and he blinked to re-focus on the woman he could now see looking down at him curiously. She had bright, golden-blue eyes, delicate features, long, platinum blond hair in a loose ponytail, and dressed like any other citizen in Bevelle. In her case, that meant the long-sleeved, long shirt she wore was white, the shorter vest over it designed blue and violet, her loose pants and shoes were blue (though the shoes were more like navy than the medium blue of the rest), and the belt at her waist was violet.

His gaze moved to include the image above him and realization dawned. "Oh, fuck," he muttered, producing an amused look from the woman. "Please tell me you didn't just become my Aeon?"

She looked even more amused as she replied in a normal voice, "But that would be lying, and I don't like lying."

Eden groaned, making her chuckle again, then gave a small sigh and asked, "Why? Why did you choose to become an Aeon, and why to me?"

"Hmm..." she murmured thoughtfully, then said, "I hated being in that body. Nothing felt real while I was in it, and it was like I was just looking out at the world from behind a glass wall. But at the same time, I really didn't want to die, either." She paused and looked off to the side for a moment. "I think, if he had come to free me himself, I might have just allowed myself to pass on." Her gaze returned to him. "But he didn't, and _you_ did. You're a Summoner, or will be one soon, and you're—you have a lot of experience in things most people have never dealt directly with.

"You told me about your past, why you intervened and why you picked the way you have. You've learned what not to do, and can give the reasons why." For a long moment she was silent, then she said, "I don't want to stay here—in Bevelle—longer than I have to right now, but if I'd chosen someone like Yuna or no one at all, I'd have to stay. After you left, I realized I had the perfect way to live, to have someone to turn to who both needs a healer and who has the experience I now most value, and even to be able to leave this city for a very long time. It all fit together very nicely, and I suddenly knew this—being a fayth and an Aeon—was something I could live with. Something I _wanted_ to live with."

Slowly, Eden sat up, then asked, "So...since this is already done and it can't really be randomly undone...what's your name—both fayth and Aeon, and what skills do you actually have?" Oh, he knew he didn't really have a choice anymore, as she'd made it for him, and he also knew he couldn't really refute her decision, either. He'd have to accept having her with him now. With the warmth in his chest, maybe it wouldn't be so bad?

"I'm Vanya (1). My Aeon form is called Seraph. Mostly, I'll heal everyone who you count as allies in a battle with strong healing. Since I'm so new, I don't know if that's all, but it's the main function I can process, something I think stemming from what was done to me, as well as my training in medical science. I think Yuna called you Eden?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, she did," he agreed, then rubbed his forehead. "Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Besides having her actively teach you to summon a fayth or Aeon, just don't summon me here in Bevelle unless you have no other option," Vanya replied, still looking amused. "And don't tell _him_ what I've become. I don't want to cause any more problems—just go back to him and tell him it's done, I've moved on."

Eden snorted and said wryly, "You're shockingly good at turning words, you know?" She grinned good-naturedly, then dissolved into energy which filtered back into his body to join with what was already anchored in his chest. He rose and made his way to the door, stepping out of the room—and closing it behind him as he met Yuna's gaze.

"What happened?" she asked him sharply, and he knew she'd felt the energy. The other Priests wondered why he wasn't moving away from the door so they'd be able to get rid of the metal body.

"Until _he_ isn't here anymore, this room is staying closed and I'm not answering," Eden replied flatly. After a moment, her eyes widened, but she gave a small nod. "What were you going to do with him?"

"Send him back to his own life with a Priest to watch over him until we all feel secure that he won't do such a thing again. If he _does_ do it again, he'll be put in prison for murder," the older woman replied.

With a nod, Eden went back to the man's room to inform him it was done and tell him what would happen next. The broken man dazedly made his way out of the Temple and back into the city, one of the Priests with him, and Eden went back to Vanya's room once he had left the grounds, opening the door to let Yuna and the Priests into it. They all gaped in shock at the ceiling, but Yuna's gaze turned to Eden questioningly, who in turn explained to her what had happened.

She suddenly looked amused as she quipped, "You certainly _do_ like collecting Aeons—Summons—don't you?" He made a sour face, and she told him, "So now you have a traditional Aeon, and barring Bevelle, she'll be useful everywhere else—we definitely have no great supply of healing Aeons. For now, you should rest, and we'll talk more in the morning, all right?"

He agreed and quickly retreated to his room with Libby at his side.

The robot Vanya had been shoved into had made him wonder if the robots Reeve was making were actually okay. He'd questioned it more than once during the day, but a look at Libby helped him realize there was a big difference between her having only ever been in that body—which actually _could_ still feel touch—and Vanya having lived as a human before being shoved into a different body. He didn't really 'fear' losing Libby, as she wasn't likely to suddenly get sick and die on him—that was a major fear instilled by how his mother, and more recently, Verdot and others, had died.

From a more logical perspective, however, Libby was a non-combatant and couldn't protect herself if something attacked her or she got trapped under rubble. No, breathing wasn't a issue, but the rubble could just as easily destroy her small body as it would crush and break human bones. Her life could, realistically, end just as suddenly and easily as his own, which should have triggered his fear of loss all the same. He was reminded of the time when Tseng had asked him what he would do when the Turks started dying around him, as they would do so. And had.

Fear of loss, fear of death, those were always one-sided and especially illogical, otherwise the people who feared those things would do to themselves what they normally forced on others. What always kept those people from doing it to themselves? Was there something intrinsic about what they were doing to those other people which made them balk at doing it to their own body, own soul? Did they all somehow know they themselves would never be able to handle it, hence how it somehow always got done to someone else? Or was it just personal selfishness which only designated the 'I wants' as valid, and not the logical progression of what they were doing? A combination of the two?

" _You're thinking too hard,_ " Carbuncle said suddenly as it jumped up onto the bed beside him and Libby.

"Am I really?" he asked in faint amusement.

" _Let me explain something,_ " the small creature offered. " _When a person fears_ their own _death, they test things on other people to see if or how it'll work, then do it to themselves. When a person fears_ loss _, the_ only _thing they're thinking about is 'oh, poor me', and do things to the people they don't want to lose without any thought for either themselves or the other person. It doesn't even have to be death if they fear loss. That's why some men kill their girlfriends or wives if they threaten to leave them. It's the same thing President Shinra did to the Planet, too. Because if they realize they're going to lose the person or the thing anyway, they just default to 'if I can't have it, no one can.'_ "

Eden blinked, then scowled, "What the Hell kind of logic is _that_?"

" _It's not. That's the point. Stop thinking about it, because you'll never come to an actual logical answer,_ " Carbuncle replied. " _Go to sleep._ "

After huffing a small chuckle, the blond closed his eyes and actually tried to sleep.

FoW

A few days had passed as Yuna taught him the difference between channeling to summon through a Materia and channeling to summon an Aeon or their fayth counterpart from within himself. It was a learning curve, though a small one, and he took to it quickly. On that particular day, it was exactly six months and one week since the Omega had arrived on Spira, and his afternoon lesson with Yuna was interrupted after only about fifteen minutes so they could be called into a meeting. The meeting chamber had five others in it—Tidus (who was notably upset), Angeal, Kariya, and the Captains of the Fahrenheit and the Farterra.

"What's wrong?" Yuna asked as she and Eden joined them.

"We have a problem which—I guess has been going on for awhile, but we didn't know it was one," the Captain of the Fahrenheit sighed. "I think you've heard of a few coastal attacks? One of your number died in one of them."

"Yes. The reports were unclear about what happened, though it seemed to be some sort of monster which began an attack, then apparently changed its mind and retreated," the woman agreed.

"Yeah, well, it's _a lot_ more complicated and extensive than that," Kariya snorted. "To start with, it's not _one_ monster, it's groups of them, and they've attacked all over the world. They even hit Erva Eyja. They always attack at night, and always withdraw soon after. In just the short attack, they leave behind a good bit of destruction. Four of our five—besides the island—have been hit, and the only real commonality we found was how they seem to come out of the water and retreat back to it—they don't like to stay on land for long."

"And here on Wilderia and Djose?" Yuna asked worriedly, gaze going to Tidus and the Captains.

"Besaid, Kilika, Luca, and Neo Zanarkand have all been hit. Bevelle—if they got in through the underwater passages, I think they retreated before reaching people to fight, sort of like the Sahagin fish," Tidus sighed. "Other scattered or temporary villages, the post on Lake Macalania, and the newly-re-established Moonflow Delta have also seen some attacks. They've been attacking ocean-going ships at times as well, and the underwater Sphere Hunters. They started to climb onto the shore of Bikanel, then left. We've never gotten a good look at them, either—they seem to be targeting and killing anyone who gets a good look at them, and we've never been able to get a Sphere record from the area. Obviously, they're forming said record themselves and taking it with them."

"That means they're highly intelligent," Yuna commented tensely. "But their behavior outside that makes no sense. What are they doing, what are they hoping to accomplish?"

"Part of that is why I'm here," Angeal said, making the others look at him, Kariya shrewdly and the others in confusion. "When they attacked New Midgar a few days ago, I was one of the ones sent to handle the attack, and they tried to throw me from the top of the cliff into the water—I'd have been a goner if I'd actually hit the ocean. Instead, my own set of wings activated, so I gained the ability to fly and avoided being skewered by their forces.

"Appearance-wise, they seem sort of like a cross between a human, a frog, and a fish, and definitely operate smoothly both on land and in the water. They have hard, scaled shells which are difficult to damage, almost like trying to break an Adaman's shell. In coloring, they're mostly shades of sandy colors, blues, and greens, in a blended form similar to camouflage. Tidus was just teaching me how to create a Memory Sphere so I'd be able to show you what it looks like.

"Also, their goals seem to run along the lines of confused exploration or testing. I'm not entirely sure _they_ know what they're doing. It's like they think they've found the right place, then realize after they've attacked that it isn't, so they retreat and look for another place. There's a good chance we won't be able to stop them until we figure out what they're looking for—they're more likely to just keep attacking until they've found it than to stop just because they run out of new places. We're also having no luck trying to track where they came from or where they keep going to." It seemed Angeal was finally done explaining to the others what he knew.

"We know they move very quickly," the Captain of the Farterra put in just then. "We can't follow them on an airship—I mean, if they had to stay on the surface, we _might_ be able to, but they don't, so we can't—so we can't find out where they're going. Underwater, they change directions very fast, travel about as fast as our best airships or faster, and tend to travel in groups which repeatedly cross one another and change directions. Even if we'd been trying to follow one, it wouldn't last past the first crossing of groups, and I'm sure they're smart enough to deliberately lay a false trail for us."

For several long minutes, Yuna pondered the explanation, then said, "The only thing we could really do is hope we can determine what it is they're looking for. From my past experience, the best way to do that is with Pilgrimages." She was quiet for another minute, then nodded and said, "Senzo (2), as Captain of the Fahrenheit, you have the key communication equipment, so I need you to arrange for me a broadcast to the population to tell the Summoners about the situation and inform them it's time for another Pilgrimage. We'll go as well, though I need a few more to join me—with only Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka, against these enemies, I—and we all—would be in too much danger."

"I'm going with you, too, aren't I?" Eden asked in surprise.

"You're going with Hana. That's been arranged for six months already," Yuna replied a bit absently. "She's got all but one of her Guardians chosen now, so she's also able to go. From the usual method of things after some sort of disaster, having the Summoners all starting from different areas would be a feasible way to gather information, so I'll encourage them to take a Turk if they have one in the area and are short a Guardian. If Besaid is accounted for because that's where Hana and hers will start from, and we'll start from Neo Zanarkand, that leaves Summoners in the other towns. I'll need to send some of them to Gaia to start from the island and the five towns there as well, hopefully groups including the Gaian Summoners..."

The others gaped at her as she drifted off, then Eden said, "Karru's not ready to go yet."

Waving her hand absently, obviously deep in thought as she made plans for the mass Pilgrimage she was arranging in her mind, she told him, "She's a little better off than Rikku was when she first joined my Pilgrimage, so she'll be fine and will be able to grow into her skills. She definitely won't die or be in danger of death unless you very quickly meet something very deadly, like a pack of Tonberries."

Another pause followed, so the blond asked, "So you're ditching me?"

The others all looked shocked or horrified, but Yuna turned her gaze to him uncomprehendingly. "I'm not 'ditching' you, I'm giving you a chance to experience a Pilgrimage without your trainer while still having someone with Summoner status to turn to. Even if I give you a Summoner's mark now, I'd still prefer both you and Hana go together on this Pilgrimage, hence the reason it's been planned that way from the start. If you want to go on another Pilgrimage yourself later, you can—Hana still hasn't told me if she wants to be the one to decide if you're ready to become a Summoner during the journey, so I have to assume she's not ready to make decisions like that, and it will still fall to me once you've returned. Also, even after the Pilgrimage, you may not be mentally ready to become a Summoner."

Eden blinked, then sighed and asked, "So are you just _trying_ to do everything backwards with me?"

She frowned at him as she replied, "Unless you're telling me you're coming down with _separation anxiety_ —" (The two words made almost everyone else in the room choke, though Kariya's brows just rose into his hair line.) "—my main reason for wanting to send you with Hana is because you have very real experience in how to keep yourself safe while away from a stable home, as well as how to handle situations. No matter how much Hana's seen with me, she's largely led a sheltered life and lacks even the basic ability to prepare for such a trek to be done largely on foot or Chocobo-back. I've already tested her knowledge of something as simple of what to pack. While _you_ could feasibly answer, _she_ could _not_ , so my suspicion is proven a very real worry. Do you _still_ have complaints, Eden?"

A long silence followed the question, then Kariya gave a snort and said, "She's got a point, Eden. This's never been an issue with you before, so why now? You normally love traveling."

Crossing his arms and giving both Kariya and Yuna a dark look, Eden replied, "Yeah. Traveling means making my own decisions, not having them made _for_ me, and in case anyone hadn't noticed, even if _Yuna_ and _Hana_ knew about this plan six months ago, _I_ did not. I'm not exactly in a good mood with this being sprung on me like this. And that's on top of what happened with Vanya just—less than a week ago."

Angeal and Kariya traded worried looks as Tidus asked, "Who's Vanya and what happened?"

"Vanya's one of the doctors working with us on cybernetics," Senzo, the Captain of the Fahrenheit, said, looking at Yuna with a worried gaze.

"Not anymore, unless a fayth can still do that. Or _wants_ to," Eden replied flatly. He then rose and said to Yuna, "Fine, if I'm supposed to be going on this trip, I'd better get ready to go, since—I guess we're heading out as soon as Hana and Koln get back from Mt. Gagazet?"

"You definitely are, and we won't be far behind," she agreed. "I—"

Eden had left the room before she could say more, heading back to his own. Yuna could explain what had happened to Vanya, and he needed time to calm down. Libby jumped up onto his shoulder to cling to it before he got to his door, and once in the room, he fell onto the bed on his belly, sending Libby sprawling on her back on his pillow. She pushed herself up quickly and started pulling out things which were light enough for her to move, effectively packing for him. Or at least finding the things he would need to take.

Most of the rooms were a decent size—they weren't barely bigger than broom closets—but they also weren't huge, so collecting large quantities of _any_ thing wasn't recommended. Eden hadn't had much choice in the matter with his Materia collection, so he had his bed and dresser to one side of the walking path into the room, and a rather large stack of packing crates full to the brim of Materia to the other. In a small desk in front of the window and stuck solidly between the bed and the crate in the back corner of the room, there were three drawers, and while the top two held things like notes and writing utensils, the bottom one was full of Materia which hadn't fit in the crates.

Suddenly, he heard a yelp followed by the sound of many stone or crystalline objects hitting the stone floor, bouncing, and rolling across it. Turning his head to look, he saw Libby getting up to collect many faintly-glowing, colored orbs—his Materia, he realized. Well, it had been a long time since he'd rearranged his set, and he still had the four-slotter he'd been keeping Zirconaide's shards on. Since he no longer had said shards, what was he supposed to do with it?

Sorting out his Materia sounded like a good idea right then, so he got up to grab them all and move them to his bed so they were all in reach.

It didn't take him long to decide Mega All was going to go on his hidden bracer, negating the use of All Materia. On the same bracer, he paired Final Attack and Phoenix, then decided on Underwater, Aerial Attack, Stealth, Carbuncle, and Unicorn. The other bracer had Slash All paired with Counter, Restore, Heal, Revive, Item Boost, Health Plus and Guard Plus. Since Heartseeker was also intended to be hidden, he kept other 'last resort' Materia on it: Hades paired with Added Effect, Odin, Kirin, Alexander, Fenrir, Manipulate, and Long Range Attack. Ama no Murakumo was the easiest, with Gravity paired with Elemental, Fire, Ice, Earth, Lightning, Aero, and Water. His Kaiser Knuckles had Mirage, Time, Destruct, Float, Exit, Enemy Skill, Typhon, and Strength Plus on it.

While he could have used some of his attempts at Fusion Materia in place of some of the singles he'd used, he and Genesis had ended up with too little time to work on perfecting them, and it wasn't feasible to just assume he could take and use them. He also didn't have very efficient combinations yet, so while he took a few with him, it was more of a test run for them, not active use. He also took some extras: Shapeshift, Knights of the Round, Morph, Enemy Lure, Enemy Away, Sense, Fly, Health Absorb, Magic Absorb, and Full Cure.

As far as working on them more went, he'd have to be a full Summoner and able to move back to Gaia to be with everyone again. In the meantime, Zack and Yufi (and several others they had found) had been Mastering Materia like crazy and trading them off to him through his friends' visits with him in Bevelle or his visits with them in New Midgar. The result was a massive collection of Materia he wasn't entirely sure how he'd be able to transport back to Gaia with him. Though, since the only one of the group who could notably breathe underwater for a long period of time was Karru, taking along enough Underwater ones for everyone in the group would probably be a good idea...

His eyes then fell on a Support and Magic sitting next to one another on the blanket, and he reached out to touch them, finding a Final Attack and Revive.

At that moment, he realized what he could do with some of them and the left-over Silver Armlet the shards of Zirconaide had been kept on, so grinned and began fitting Materia to the Armlet.

"Feeling better now, Eden?" Libby asked curiously as she started moving a few of the Materia back to the drawer they'd come from.

"Yes, quite a bit, thanks," he agreed, quickly finishing up. "Now, let's go find Karru to let her know the change in plan."

"Okay!" Libby agreed, hopping onto his shoulder as he headed for the door.

 **Notes:**

(1) I had planned for this to happen, and for her to become the Aeon form she did (with all the trouble Eden gets into, he could sure use another healer! :D :P), but the name took me by surprise—she just really wanted to be named Vanya, I guess.

(2) This is a random name (since I didn't assign him one before), though I'm not sure if it will come up again or not during the course of the story.


	66. 62-Preparing for Pilgrimage

**A/N:** Funny little anecdote because it was so priceless...:

My roommate came home after a day at work, and she was saying she wanted something, but, like sometimes happens, the brain shuts down and she had to try three times to get it out.

What she ended up saying: "I want ships and dick."

My response: "...Does that mean you want to get into bed with a sailor?"

After we had a good laugh about that, she had to try four more times to finally get out what she ACTUALLY meant: "I want chips and dip!"

Now, after that hilarity, on with the story!

Preparing for Pilgrimage

It didn't take long for Eden to find Karru while she and Rikku sparred in one of the Temple courtyards away from the bedrooms. It was true her skills had improved to a feasible level in general terms, but he knew things were never so simple, and being just 'okay' at fighting was a good way to end up in an early grave. There was no guarantee they'd only meet things she was capable of fighting one-on-one, and with the new enemy they were actively seeking, there was a good chance she'd be meeting something much stronger very soon. Even Hana had gone past the point of barely sufficient combat skills and could largely hold her own against him when he opted to meet her in battle with a staff or spear.

They came to a halt in the sparring match and Rikku announced, "Okay, that's enough for now. Break time!"

"Finally..." Karru breathed in relief. That likely meant they had been going at it for well over an hour, and Karru verified the point when she asked, "Does that mean I can go eat now? I'm _starving_ , and I'm pretty sure we missed lunch!"

"We did, and you can," Rikku replied in amusement. "Just to be clear on this—a fight's not just going to stop because you get hungry or tired. That's why I kept pushing today—so you'd be able to see that."

"Oh," Karru blinked.

"If you're both done now," Eden called to them in mild amusement, causing both to blink at him in mild surprise. "Yuna and I were just called into a meeting not long ago. It seems we're all going to be setting out on Pilgrimages in a few days because there's a problem in need of resolving." Holding up the Silver Armlet with four Materia on it, he said, "Since we're suddenly so short on time, Karru, you can have this Armlet and the Materia on it—they'll help you a lot on this trip."

"Huh?" Karru first blinked, then grinned and hopped over to him to take it. "So, what did you give me? The Materia, I mean—silver's no cheap gift!"

"The pair is Final Attack and Revive. That means, if something kills you, that combo will revive you automatically," the golden-eyed blond explained, and he saw Rikku's brow rise out of the corner of his eye. "Those are _going_ to stay paired until you've reached Turk-level skills or I'll flay you alive, got it?" Karru gaped at him as Rikku gave an amused snort, so he went on, "The other two are Guard Plus, which will reduce the damage you'll take from attacks, and Carbuncle, one of the many babies produced off my root Carbuncle. It's a separate one from mine, and because it's a Materia-based Summon, not an Aeon, you'll be able to Summon it to protect you and anyone else nearby. So will anyone _else_ who gets their hands on it, so keep it close."

"...Wow...This is a really loaded gift..." Karru gaped in a winded tone. "I mean—you didn't say you wanted me to give it back after the trip..."

"Giving it back is up to you, but no, I'm not asking for it back. You can keep them," Eden agreed, then blinked when the now fourteen-year-old girl hugged him.

"Thank you!" she half-way chirped and half-way breathed in reverence. She then pulled back and slipped her glove on her right hand down so she could fasten the bracer on her wrist, then pulled the glove hem back up so it covered the bracer. Her stomach rumbled hungrily, so Eden gave her an amused grin and shooed her away with a hand motion. She grinned, hugged him one more time, and ran inside to get something to eat.

"You know, I never really took you as the protective sort before," Rikku commented once Karru was out of hearing range. "You were always more along the lines of 'you've got skills, so use them and perfect them, do for yourself, and make your own choices.' What changed your mind with Karru?"

"I didn't," Eden replied in a dry tone, meeting Rikku's green, spiral iris eyes. "I want her to improve her skills so she won't _need_ those supplements, but I _also_ don't want her to die to learn that. Frankly, by what little we know about what we're tracking, meeting them _any_ where is far too real a possibility, and that would easily lead to the deaths of people much more skilled and powerful than she is now. We can't be guaranteed of a safe trip, and they make a habit of killing anyone who gets a good look at them."

Blinking, Rikku gave a small nod and said, "In that case, I can see what the worry is about, and it's also true she's got the least training and real combat experience of your whole group. Well, of the ones I know about."

"You know who Hana's group members are? All of them?" Eden asked in mild surprise.

"I don't know for sure if I'm right to say you're one, but it's no secret Koln, Karru, Sora, and Aeris have all given their agreement to join Hana's Pilgrimage. With Yuna having said once to me that she needs only one more, I was left pondering who her fifth Guardian was. The only one I could think of was you, because any other Spiran would be widely-known," Rikku replied with a shrug and stretch. "Feel free to correct me if you're not the fifth Guardian, though. Walk with me so I can go eat, too?"

At the invitation, Eden fell in with her as she headed inside, her destination the same as Karru's. As they walked, the younger blond replied, "I'm the fifth, which I only found out today, as no one had bothered to tell me they had arranged that six months ago." His gaze became annoyed again.

"I'm guessing Libby will be going with you?" Rikku asked in amusement.

"Of course! I go everywhere with Eden!" Libby announced happily. "There's still so much I can record and learn, too!"

Both blonds snorted at the words, and Rikku said, "Have at the new world, then, kiddo. For a little one like you, there's way more to learn than there is for a thirty-five-hundred-year-old like me."

"You aren't _looking_ for anything new to learn, either," Libby replied pointedly, sticking her tongue out at Rikku—ironically, that was a behavior Rikku herself had taught the little robot.

Rikku flushed and retorted, "I've already learned plenty! I don't need to know more!"

"That's why you haven't moved on yet?" Libby asked sweetly in return, and Eden burst out laughing as Rikku froze, jaw dropped in shock.

"Hey, you sassy little—beast!" Rikku burst out in a clear pout, and Libby just chuckled.

"She had a good teacher, didn't she, Rikku? Since you actually _coached_ her to behave like an Al Bhed child?" Eden pointed out in amusement. "If you didn't expect that to come back and bite you, there's definitely still _a lot_ you need to learn."

"Aw..." Rikku whined and pouted all the rest of the way to the Temple's cafeteria, which they had opted to call the mess hall. And oddly enough, it was 'messy' rather often, so it had been aptly named.

Since Eden had already eaten, he left Rikku at the door so he could return to his room and work out more of the things he wanted to take with him on the trip.

While he'd shuffled some things around and removed a few Materia from that bottom drawer, it was still very, very full. Maybe he should arrange to have the crates shipped to Genesis to store so he could start over? Or, there was potential he could work to return them to the Lifestream when he had too many. It would give him more space, even if said space was just going to go into collecting them all over again. Well, if he cared to think about it hard enough, Rufus would probably willingly store all of them for him until he was ready to start using them or returning them to the Lifestream. The only reason most of the ones he currently had hadn't been returned to the Lifestream already was a very simple lack of need to, given the general energy levels of Spira.

Going 'home' would feel strange, Pilgrimage or no.

And it would be time to start their journey soon.

FoW

A few days passed largely quietly for him—and even for Karru. He'd begun sparring with the girl in Rikku's place because Rikku, Tidus, and Yuna were all busy preparing for their own Pilgrimage as well as helping to direct all the other Summoners to get started on theirs. In Eden and Karru's case, they had to wait for Hana to come back before they could do more than some preliminary packing, and she had diverted to New Midgar to retrieve Aeris and Sora, so it took her longer to get back. She was actually due back that day, but no one was sure exactly when—it was basically defined as 'she'll get here when she gets here.' As such, both Eden and Karru needed the distraction, and Karru still needed more training, anyway.

Since she was intended to be a thief, he pushed her agility more than her strength, and encouraged her to take what he'd normally call 'cheap' shots. The basic training she needed was a lot like a Ninja or Turk's, but with the _intent_ to get those 'surprise' attacks on enemies. He was a front-line combatant, but he also knew the other side, and he mainly pushed her to avoid getting hit and to repeatedly move into her opponents' blind spot, which invariably meant keeping her behind her target. She would still have to know how to fight in a frontal attack, but moving into an opponent's blind spot or just not getting hit were pretty universal techniques for someone with her basic skill set.

Most of the Turks in Wilderia and Djose had been claimed, much to their surprise (and in some cases, to their apprehension), but nearly all of those were also traveling with at least one other Gaian who was currently a Summoner apprentice. Even Yuna had managed to find one, as she only had three of her six Guardians otherwise—but since Kariya and Angeal had been present to provide data, she'd readily taken advantage and gotten them to fill a couple of the empty places in her group. Her last chosen Guardian was a woman who was a capable warrior originally hailing from New/Neo Zanarkand. With that, most of the Summoners had either already left or were bound to soon.

Karru and Eden were just taking a break from sparring, Karru panting pretty heavily as they sat in one of the small gazebos lining the various outdoor spaces in the Temple grounds. "How much energy do you _have_?" the girl whined to him, making him chuckle. "Seriously, even Auntie Rikku can't go for _that long_ without even breathing hard!"

"I'm used to it, though," he replied in amusement.

"Used to it?" she blinked, looking up at him in confusion. " _That_?"

"Yes, that," he chuckled. "My teacher in both martial skills and alchemy was a very, very strong woman who could down a Sacred Beast solo without even being enhanced. She believed very strongly that you couldn't train the mind without training the body, and she loathed wasting time—or her definition of doing so. The result was my brother and I both having to fight her while we recited our lessons or learned new data, both of us against her for over eight hours a day, every day of the week, with only breaks for meals and some time in the evening for us to actually study. And get this—we could never lay a hand on her, and she normally fought us both with _just one hand while she read a book with the other_."

The girl gaped at him, then asked, "Is that even possible?"

"It is. She took the lessons she gave us seriously, and she made sure we were prepared—or as prepared as she could make us—to fight anything which may have endangered us."

"...Like you're doing with me. What's actually 'endangering' us for you to push me so hard?"

Sighing, the blond told her, "There's only been one survivor of an attack by an unknown race of—something, they may be monsters or an actual sentient race. He only survived because it turned out he, like Genesis and Sephiroth, has wings, too. They've literally killed everyone else who saw them, erasing their presence in locations very deliberately. And now, all the Summoners have been sent out to _find_ that enemy. If you were going to be going on a normal Pilgrimage, this extensive training I'm giving you wouldn't be needed—you'd have time to build up your strength. As it turns out, we could meet them as soon as we touch down in Besaid, so..."

"We may really meet them before I'm ready to fight them," Karru blinked in realization. "If it's so dangerous, why does Hana still want to take me?"

"Because we also may not meet them at all, and you can still benefit from the trip. You just can't be a raw beginner when you start out," he shrugged. "And what I'm making you learn right now will help you a lot more than Rikku's method in the kind of battle we would be going into until you reach a skill level where you _could_ face them head-on."

"So what would the next lesson be, then?" she asked, pushing herself up to do some stretching exercises.

"What happens if you lose your weapon, Karru?" he asked her shrewdly.

"Huh?" she asked in surprise, meeting his gaze for a moment while still doing her exercises. "That happens?"

"All the time. It may be knocked from your hand in battle, or some monsters have an ability which forces you to drop it for a time. On the other hand, you may be woken from sleep, so even if you sleep with your weapon close at hand, you won't sleep with it _on_ , and that leaves you at a disadvantage—you may not have time to grab it in a sudden attack like that. What do you do then?"

"Uh...Improvise?"

Eden snorted in amusement at the answer. "Okay. How?"

Karru stopped her stretches to straighten and look at him in confusion for a moment before her eyes widened and she admitted, "I don't know."

"That's one of Rikku's failings in teaching you," the blond Turk told her. "She did well with your actual combat skill, but no one directly 'taught' her the things I'm teaching you now, so she had to've picked them up on her own travels, and doesn't realize they're actually _learned_ skills. So, take a look around you. Tell me _everything_ you see, even things you think are small and insignificant."

"So, what, you want me to even list the gazebo and the Temple doors?" the girl blinked.

" _Everything_ ," he reiterated.

She paused as her brow furrowed, then she crossed her arms, then she said, "Fine, but I'm not repeating those two. So, there's a bunch of plants—trees, bushes, flowers—around the perimeter. Past them is the Temple perimeter wall on one side, the Temple across from it, and paths leading to different areas of the Temple from here. The paths are brick-work, but the training area is dirt and gravel. At the Temple entrance are two stone pillars and the over-hang of the roof. Some birds always come by here, and a few are always in the trees and bushes. Otherwise, there's nothing here."

"You're missing a few obvious things, Karru."

"Like what?"

"Yourself. Me. The weapons we brought with us. Clothing articles. The towels kept on the rack near the Temple entrance. The rack itself. Loose boards on the gazebo which are shockingly easy to pull off, and have even popped off a few times when they've been struck."

"Why are _those_ important? Some of them aren't even always here!"

"This is assessment, Karru. What's in your surroundings right now, when you're looking? I didn't ask you for what's _normally_ here, I asked you to list _everything_ that _is here_. What you have at your disposal depends on your surroundings at the moment you're looking, and you need to immediately be able to see what it is and how it either can or can't be used if you have no weapon. That _includes_ stealing your attacker's weapon if you have the opportunity, throwing gravel in their face to gain a few extra moments to reach something, or pulling off a weak section of a building or object in the area to make a facsimile of a weapon. The broken boards on the gazebo make great temporary substitutes for swords or clubs, by the way. You wouldn't be able to use them for long, but they'll work in a pinch. Start thinking more critically and creatively about what's around you—what can you use, and how can you use it?"

It was clear Karru was shocked by the new data, and just stared at him stupidly for a minute before turning and walking slowly around the perimeter of the sparring 'arena'. When she came to a halt back where she'd started, she said, "The towels are a distraction, like the gravel you said before. Those are more likely to work than the packed dirt and gravel here, too. The mud the plants are growing in can do that, too. Or, I could just yank up some of the plants and throw them at the attacker, because if I'm near something like the Fireflowers, those would be agony if pollen or nectar touched their bare skin. The towel rack I could throw in their way or knock over to trip them up. If I could get behind the trees, I'd have some sort of shelter, or startling the birds into flight might be a distraction. The gazebo would also be able to be a shelter." She then paused and snorted, "I could strangle you with your own tie, like I did accidentally yesterday, but on purpose if you were really an enemy. What else?"

Eden gave her an amused look and said, "You could certainly _try_ to strangle an attacker with something they have around their neck anyway. Frankly, hijacking their weapon would be easier, if it's something they have in a sheath or need to hold on to. You couldn't steal my fist weapon, though, because it won't come off that easily. Assess the clothing and other gear I have on right now, and assess _yours_. Besides my tie and knuckles."

"Assess..." she blinked, then looked down at herself before looking at him. Her brow furrowed and she tentatively asked, "Could I hijack that thing you have in the top of your boot? It's not your metal leg—it's on the other side—but I'm sure I've kicked something hard there before."

"Good call," he agreed, lifting his pant leg and pulling out his dagger, then tossing it to her. "If you were able to hijack that from me, what would you just have gained?"

She barely managed to catch the dagger, and cut one finger on it in the process, producing a pained 'yip' before she stuck the bleeding digit in her mouth to suck on it. When he sighed in exasperation, she looked up and asked, "What?"

"What if the blade was poisoned?" he asked in a dry tone.

She blinked, then shrugged and said, "Then I'd be screwed anyway, because the poison's already in my bloodstream from the cut. And actually, to try to lessen that, I'd have to suck the tainted blood out of my body and spit it on the ground if I don't have an antidote or a remedy."

"Well, at least you know _that_ much. Good answer, by the way," he smirked.

"It's basic thief knowledge. Auntie Rikku taught me," Karru answered, tone absent. She then looked up at him and asked, "Exactly why does this thing come across like a fricken _army_?"

"How so?" he asked in amusement.

" _Five_ Summons, three of those combat-related, one for healing, and one for mass effects—on the dagger as well as to strike all opponents—the ability to control an enemy unless they're immune, _and_ the ability to use a close combat weapon to strike an enemy far away? That's like—like—"

"A trump card?"

"Yeah, that!"

"Because I keep Heartseeker hidden and designed it that way _to be_ a trump card. If you _actually managed_ to hijack that from me, chances are, you'd win against pretty much anyone or anything that attacked you. Assuming you have the _sheer energy_ requirement to _activate_ it all."

"...Oh."

"Yes, oh. Keep looking for other things."

With a huff, Karru tossed the dagger back to him, which he caught neatly and returned to its place, then frowned and gazed at him for a long moment. "You're wearing a suit jacket, a shirt, and pants. I've got my shorts, jacket, and shirt...my goggles, the long tie in my hair..."

"That tie is more dangerous to _you_ than to your opponent, by the way."

"Because they could strangle me with it, or even just use it to 'catch' me, right? I changed the way it was tied after Auntie Rikku used it against me once. The next time she tried, it didn't work, and she was still able to catch me with it, but the time after, I had the tie right and it just slipped right out when she tried to catch me with it. The goggles protect my eyes, like from sun or dust, though I could probably do just fine without them. I can't think of anything besides the things like Materia—and like you said, I'd have to have the energy to activate them, so they aren't a use-all."

"If someone grabs you by the back of your clothes, what's your best option?"

"...Huh?"

"What article of clothing will they grab—mostly—if they try to grab you from behind?"

"...My jacket?"

"And, if they grab it, what can you do to get out of their hold?"

Karru was quiet for a moment, frowning deeply, but then she gasped in shock, "Just slip out of my jacket, and they're left with it, but not _me_! And you could do that, too, if they grabbed your suit jacket!"

"Right. Good job," Eden grinned. "Now, let's go for a walk through the Temple and city, and I'll pick random places I want you to assess in just this way." He rose and led the younger girl through the Temple, hoping making her do this particular exercise would make her _much_ more aware of her surroundings at the same time, so it would be harder for an enemy to sneak up on her.


	67. 63-Guardians Together

Guardians Together

While Eden was sitting on the rim of a fountain near where Karru was gambling with a few other kids her age (it was a dice game for bits of candy), Yuna sat down beside him and asked in amusement, "You're letting her gamble?"

"It's not for money, so I won't stop her. I guess you, or I, can always talk with her about the difference once she's done," he replied with a shrug.

"...So, are you done avoiding me now?" the older woman asked shrewdly.

"Hey, that's _not_ entirely my fault lately—more than once, I've gone to a place where we would do something like sit and talk at the time we would normally meet there, and _you_ didn't show up," he returned in annoyance. "Since you were busy, there was no real point in interrupting you—I'd have just been told to wait until you had time, anyway."

She was silent for a moment before saying, "You had given a rather distinct impression you preferred to simply not have my company, or even an apology, so I didn't think you would bother to show up. The few times I had time to speak with you since the meeting, you either ignored me completely or deliberately walked away after you had seen me."

"You couldn't have followed me?" he asked, still irritated.

"The _last_ time I thought to follow you, both of us ended up in the infirmary after getting into a rather violent fight." Despite the dire words, she sounded amused. "You have a temper, and if you aren't in the mood—or calmed down enough from whatever upset you—trying to force the issue generally results in more pain and anger than I care to cause _either_ of us. So no, I _wasn't_ going to 'follow' you. I'm not your keeper, I'm your _teacher_. It's _not_ my responsibility to fix you if you choose to behave like a willful child."

His shoulders sagged as he sighed heavily. "Fine, whatever. Why are you here now, Yuna? Don't you still have a lot to do?"

She shrugged and replied, "At the moment, no. Most of the plans are set, and most of the Summoners are heading for their starting points. My Guardians are picking up the slack, because they all know I wanted to be able to talk with you before we parted ways for the Pilgrimage." The woman paused for a moment, then said, "I _am_ sorry I didn't inform you of a decision as major as you going with Hana on her Pilgrimage. Unlike the cleansing bath, this one actually has a very major impact on you and your life, so I should really have remembered to tell you before now. The only excuse, as meager as it is, that I can give for not doing so is just—I forgot. You deserved better from me in this regard. Did Hana ever speak with you about it, or ask you?"

Thinking back over the time Eden had spent with Hana, he sorted through the memories—then blinked as he came to one which had been in the evening shortly after both had finished with their daily baths. Since that time was generally for relaxation, they had both gone to the same place—the Library—to read for the sake of reading, not to study something. They'd had an interesting discussion, though to him, it had generally been hypothetical or teasing...but nothing he'd said then had been a lie.

"I guess we sort of discussed it once. I had taken it as hypothetical, but I still told her the truth. I'm not angry about being sent to travel with her, Yuna—about that, I'm actually kind of relieved I _will_ be going with her—I'm angry because no one _told_ me I would be until it got sprung on me a few days ago. As much as I don't normally mind surprises, I like to be _aware_ of something quite so major _before_ I have to _do_ it."

"Sadly, even in the best of circumstances, that's not always possible," she pointed out. He nodded, so she said, "This time, though, it could have been avoided, and you hold no blame for that. If it has any meaning to you, I know you'll be prepared by the time Hana returns, if you aren't already. Just...don't take it out on her."

"I never planned to take it out on the ones I'm supposed to travel with. I've been preparing and safe-guarding Karru so she's not so likely to die if we meet them almost as soon as we set out. I even gave her one of my Final Attack and Revive pairs so she'd have an extra until she's _actually_ strong enough to fight them," he replied dryly.

Yuna breathed out a relieved sigh and said, "Thank you for that. I know this isn't a weak enemy, but I couldn't do anything but hope for the best. With Karru in better shape now, I'll be able to do more than hope."

Eden smiled faintly, but as Yuna was about to rise, he said, "Hey, Yuna..." She turned back to him as he took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Is it really all right for me to—still be a Summoner's apprentice after what I did, and Vanya...?"

"I think you have one point backwards, Eden," she told him in mild amusement. When he met her gaze in confusion, she elaborated, "Vanya knew everything that happened—what you did, why you did it, your past. She deemed you a Summoner worthy of having her help, not because you were 'strong', but because she knew your heart and knew it had found the correct path, only after much pain. Her choice of Summoner matters, Eden, and because she was one of your potential victims, that's even more true. No other Summoner in this era could have earned her trust."

Straightening, the blond blinked and asked, "So the good outweighs the bad?"

"In a manner of speaking, though there never actually _was_ a 'bad' in this situation, just a great deal of pain, for everyone involved. You need to stop allocating absolutely everything as 'good' or 'bad'. Sometimes, there isn't. A raw wound like yours couldn't have really done anything else without having first dealt with the situation, and you never had people around you who could guide you through it before. If you had been reacting in anger, I may have classed that as 'bad', but you weren't—you made a poor decision, assuming you were even capable of actual thought at the time, but it wasn't a 'bad' thing, just a very painful, emotional one."

"How is it not bad to hurt people?"

"As I said, if you had been acting in anger, that would have been different. If you had gone in there _intending_ to harm everyone, you would have literally done something bad. Instead, your deepest wish just then had been the opposite—to save Vanya in the only way you knew how. You just weren't tangibly aware of anyone else in your range, but you weren't _trying_ to harm them. Yes, _intent_ is actually a significant difference. And in case you hadn't noticed, even if you _had_ done something very wrong, the effective punishment you got for doing it—being forced to deal with them and send Vanya on—was rather sufficient, wasn't it?"

"Aunt Yuna!" Karru cried happily as she joined them to hug the woman, even as Eden just stared at the woman for a minute.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man who had put Vanya into the robot body, and turned to look at him. When the man saw him looking, he tentatively approached, a Priest following not too far behind him, then asked, "Could I...ask you something, Summoner?" Somehow, being called 'Summoner' always made Eden reach up to touch the earring, but he gave a nod. The exhausted-looking man then asked, "How do you deal with the loss of a loved one, especially knowing you were the one to...?"

Eden blinked, then sighed. "That's the whole crux of the matter, isn't it?" he asked the man rhetorically. Giving his head a shake, he said, "It takes time. Losing someone is a huge change in your life, like a void just opened up where that person had been. What do you think about most right now?"

The man was quiet for a minute, then said slowly, "That...I miss her, that I was such a fool for...cherishing her too much, but not enough...I'll never see her again...It's all gone..."

"And that's the _worst_ thing you can do for yourself," the blond replied quietly. The man blinked. "You're focused on _yourself_ , what _you've_ lost, poor _you_. It's still going to take time to deal with what happened, but think about things that made you happy, moments you've cherished, held in your heart. Think about things the two of you laughed over. Remember the good things, her accomplishments. As long as you keep those memories alive, she won't be completely gone, and over time, the pain will start to lessen—but you need to stop _focusing_ on that pain. Move forward." He pointed at the man and added, "You have a strong, healthy pair of legs. Get up and use them. That's what she would want, too. She's moved on, so now it's _your_ turn, one step at a time."

The man looked down at himself, then back up at the younger man for a minute. It seemed it was taking him time to process the data, but finally, he had apparently done so, and asked, "What do I do if I can't touch my tools, or even _look_ at them, anymore without having a panic attack?"

Blinking, Eden assessed the words for a moment, then said, "You have two choices. Neither is a right or wrong—the one which is best for one person won't be the best for another—they're both just options for how you can proceed from here." When the older man gave a small nod, the younger said, "Either you find the strength within you to push past the fear and go back to what you always used to do, or take some time to learn more about yourself so you can choose a different career if this one just doesn't work for you anymore. Maybe the familiarity would be a comfort to you if you could just get past the fear, or maybe the only way you can actually move forward is to go for broke and over-haul your whole life. The decision on that is yours to make."

For a long moment, the man eyed him, then asked tentatively, "Which one did you choose, Summoner?"

Even as he reached up to touch the tassels of his earring, the blond sighed and said wryly, "I'm a stubborn bastard, and I find all my greatest comforts in things which are familiar to me, so my choice is normally to shove past the fear and drown myself in books and knowledge and work which takes me away from the real world and the pain until it eases. I did the same thing when I talked with you after we were back at the Temple—shoved past all of it so I could do what I had to, then later drowned myself in training, books, and so on. I used to think that was the only way to do things and the only kind of 'strength' there was, until someone pointed out to me that it takes just as much strength to face the unknown as it does to push past fear to hold on to something familiar. That's why I'm telling you—the choice is yours and both paths are valid. You have to choose the one which is best for you, and _you're_ the only one who can decide that."

When the man looked thoughtful, Eden thought he'd gotten through to him, and the man proved him right when he said softly, "Thank you for advising me. I'll think hard about what I need to do now." He then bowed and walked away—

And it was only then when Eden realized he had an audience. When he wrenched his gaze to Yuna, she looked very pleased as she said, "Well done, Eden. For someone who doubts his abilities as a mediator and adviser so much, you certainly do a good job of it, especially in that kind of situation."

"Why do I have an audience?" he asked her in a strained voice.

Her brow raised. "Half of these people are the ones who were present back then, and were probably initially worried about your mental state when they saw him approach you." She then gave a nod. "It seems you _have_ moved forward from one of your old pains, finally. That's good, especially at this point."

"Why?" he blinked.

"You haven't seen what the 'monsters' look like yet—they honestly look more like very detailed weapon machinas than they do like monsters," she informed the younger blond. "If my suspicion is correct, someone had to have _made_ them, which would put you in the position of facing this wound every time you saw them. That level of distraction would have been deadly to the whole group of you, so for you to have overcome it is a very good thing. I think you'll be all right now with just Hana and her other Guardians for advice."

His lips quirked faintly as he said, "Thanks...But you still haven't told me what the other half of the crowd is doing here."

She gave him an amused look and replied, "Getting free advice at someone else's expense." When Eden gaped at her, she chuckled and said, "Don't worry about it so much—it's not actually unusual."

As he sighed, a Priest from the Temple ran up and announced, "Hana and her Guardians are back and on their way to the Temple!"

"Yes! Hana's back!" Karru grinned and cheered, then ran for the Temple.

Yuna and Eden stared after her, then traded bemused looks, rose, and followed her more slowly. "Take care of yourself on your Pilgrimage, all right, Eden? Just like I told Hana, I expect to see you back alive and well at the end of it," Yuna told him suddenly as they neared the Temple Gates.

The blond blinked at her, then snorted and replied, "I _plan_ to be around at the end of it, don't worry." Yuna smiled and nodded.

When the two were back at the Temple, the Priests told them where to find Hana and her returned Guardians, so the two headed for the room. Eden stepped inside first, followed by Yuna, who stayed by the door as Aeris ran to the blond to hug him tightly, saying as she did, "As much as I love spending time with Tseng, I'm really glad I can spend some with you, now!"

"Nice to see you, too, Aeris," he grinned as he returned her hug. Over her shoulder, he looked around at the rest of the group, seeing Sora, Koln, Hana, Karru, and one of the Ronso who he thought was named Gamahri. Blue fur, white hair, a horn on his forehead, but not as tall as other Ronsos—yeah, it kinda had to be Gamahri. Yuna had told him this particular Ronso was a descendant of one of her former Guardians, Kimahri, who had been shunned by his fellow Ronsos back then. Gamahri didn't have that particular problem, but had apparently deemed travel a valuable thing regardless.

"Karru said you have an Aeon now—a traditional Spiran one?" Hana asked when she saw Eden watching them. Aeris let him go at the words to peer at him with worry in her gaze.

"She didn't really leave me much choice in the matter," the blond replied dryly. "But yes, Vanya or Seraph. You can meet her once we leave Bevelle."

"Are you actually okay from doing that?" Aeris asked him.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "Everything _else_ about the situation hurt a lot more than her deciding to hijack me so she didn't die so soon."

Koln and Sora both snorted at the statement as Sora commented, "I suppose we should all be grateful for that, otherwise you would be next to useless now."

"Gee, thanks," Eden replied to the older woman in a dry tone.

"Oh, that's right, you haven't formally met my final Guardian," Hana smiled faintly. "Gamahri Ronso has decided to join us, see more of the world, and learn new ways to fight. Though, he also doesn't say much—he's pretty quiet, even for the Ronso."

"That's fine," Eden grinned, thinking of Rude. "That probably also means it's worth paying attention to him if he _does_ decide to say something. And Gamahri and I have met." His gaze moved to the Ronso again as he greeted, "Good to see you again, Gamahri."

"You as well," the larger man—who was actually even taller than Angeal—returned in a mild, somewhat rumbling tone.

"Now that the introductions are done, when have you scheduled your departure, Hana?" Yuna cut in to ask as she approached the group.

"Unfortunately, it had to be tomorrow morning or it would be several days of travel just to get there," Hana sighed. "They've cut most of the routes going to Besaid, and the one I agreed to go on is the last one they're willing to run. So yes, it's a _much_ tighter schedule than I wanted to have."

"Best option is to rest in Besaid for a few days before we set out, then," Eden told her in a dry tone. When she blinked at him in surprise and started to open her mouth, he cut her off, "Hana, we're going on a Pilgrimage from Besaid. No one's set us a time limit to be done by, and since Besaid is one of the places attacked, I want to be able to thoroughly examine anything they left behind before we go, anyway. That way, I'll know what I'm looking at without taking time in successive locations. If you need to rest for a couple days after the huge amount of long-distance travel you just did, then _take_ them."

Hana stared at him for a few moments, then looked at Yuna, who told her, "Eden is right about all of that. 'Reasonable time' to complete a Pilgrimage has no set schedule, and how long it will take will depends largely on what you're dealing with. Whenever you need a few days to rest, you're welcome to take them—even _should_ take them, so you're actually _ready_ to fight if needed on the next stretch. I'm not stipulating a time for you to be done by—that's not what a Pilgrimage is about."

"...So that's what Auron meant when he 'urged' me to rest in his test..." Hana said in faint amusement.

"At this point, however, all of you need to see the Memory Sphere Angeal gave us of what he saw when they attacked New Midgar," Yuna informed the group. "Even Karru and Eden haven't seen it, yet, but it will give you something to work with. Come with me."

She proceeded to lead them to a different room where multitudes of Spheres were stored, and had them settle around the projector table while she went to get the needed Sphere. When she returned, she placed it in the middle of the projector, and the image lit up the space in the air above the table. It showed Angeal and several other SOLDIERs arriving at the cliff as some beings they had never seen before picked through things in the area—bodies, garbage, crates, homes with broken walls, doors, and windows, warehouses and factories in similar states to the homes. There was a clear 'cringe' in the image from the graphic blood and gore, and everyone looked faintly ill as Karru muttered, "Ew, gross..."

Upon the arrival of the SOLDIERs, the creatures faced them and attacked them hard and suddenly—three of the men were dead before Angeal had done more than reach for his sword handle over his shoulder. The action had shown the group long, sharp talons which cut skin like butter, and the only real benefit anyone could see to it was how the result was an instant death—they went straight for vital points which would kill fast. Those points, as the battle proceeded, included the throat, the heart, and the head between the eyes. Attacks on the monsters often deflected on hard, scaled shells, and the only one who managed to hold his own against them, even kill one of them with a Gravity-charged sword attack, was Angeal.

Even that didn't last, as he found himself backed against the cliff in his attempts to maneuver around them, and a glance back showed several scaling the cliff and in the water below. He fought for a while longer, but then three attacked him at once, and a fourth did something very unexpected—it knocked his feet out from under him, and as he fell backwards, the monster caught his sword arm and tossed him off the edge of the cliff. Everyone got a good look at the multitudes of talons he was heading straight for before some sort of energy interfered with their vision and he stopped falling about two feet above the surface to suddenly glide forward and pull up into the air so he could circle above them. A glance back over his shoulder revealed white wings, so Angeal's gaze returned to the attackers.

After watching him circle for about two minutes while he threw magic attacks at them, they all dove for the water and quickly vanished. He tried to follow where they went, but it was obvious in very short order that they had dived deep and were likely below the continent mass. When he held his wrist up in front of his face, everyone could see the lacerations slicing his arm where the one hand grabbed him—three long gashes which cut to the bone, severing skin, muscle, and tendons cleanly.

When the image stopped, it was replaced by a still image of one in particular which had shown a very good view of their appearance. They were bi-pedal, or at least semi-bi-pedal, though their backs seemed to be hunched, and their arms were nearly as long as their legs, with a tail, also scaled, which had a notable fan-like fin on the end of it. The scaled shell they had was just a skin, or a covering for their skin, but by the way their bellies and chests looked, it was likely their 'skin' was metal, regardless—the chest and belly showed what were clearly jointed, metal plates. The slender arms and legs were covered in actual armor plating, and there was some armor plating over their fronts, but it wasn't the same as the full scaled plating on their backs. Both hands and feet had those long, sharp talons, easily four or five inches in length, but it seemed they were joined to be retractable in some manner.

As for their heads, they were somewhat humanoid, though with a bit of a snout in which fangs and human teeth were both present. Their eyes were all nearly pure white and showed a spiral iris effect, currently which had caused the pupil to become very small, showing it as round, like in any human eye. There were no ears to speak of, though they had to have had something which served as such, and the nose was distinctly amphibian. They had neither hair nor decoration beyond the armor plates they wore, and tended towards paler color variants of sandy colors, blues, and greens on their fronts, with darker variants on their backs and scales, all in a pattern much like camouflage.

When the image deactivated, Karru said, "Now I know why you were so worried about me, Eden. Thanks."

"What?" Hana asked in surprise.

"Even _without_ actually seeing that, I knew Karru wasn't ready to face those—even _we_ may not be," Eden replied. "But I knew of a way I could kind of safe-guard her, just in case. Our Materia, I think I'm going to recommend all of us use Final Attack and Revive or Phoenix paired. And Underwater, so you can't die by drowning. Your Garment Grids allow you to slot them and for them to function, as long as one is passive and one is active. I already use the pair, and I'm pretty sure Zack and Yufi have sent me several of both, which were 'in excess' for those of Gaia's military personnel who wanted them. I'm _also_ sure all our combat personnel are now more than willing to have the pair on them. The only thing I saw there which was a done deal was decapitation—the other methods would have revived you."

"And even if they decapitate half the time, that still leaves us a lot more chance of surviving than without them," Koln said in a subdued tone. "I see your point, but we'll _still_ have a problem if they start figuring out they just need to go for the throat, and they're obviously intelligent enough for that."

"Actually, what Eden means isn't just them damaging the throat, which was far more common than decapitation," Sora answered, gaze fixed on where the image had been. "They had decapitated approximately twenty of the—around two hundred people they had killed, which would leave us a ninety percent survival rating. Until they figured out the only thing which worked was decapitation. The biggest problem here is that they aren't so different from us in intelligence, adaptability, and improvisation."

"And Aeris is the one we have to keep alive at all costs, since she's the one most likely to be _able_ to revive the rest of us if something goes horribly wrong," Eden added.

"Eden—" Aeris began with a worried frown.

"Great Gospel does what, exactly?" he asked her pointedly.

"...Heals, revives, and makes you immune to damage for several minutes after I use it. Even if I initially activate it because someone died, it will give everyone who isn't an enemy the same benefit," she replied dutifully.

"And does it work on decapitation?" he asked.

She was silent for a long moment, then sighed faintly and said, "It does, but it can't just keep doing it over and over again to the same person. After about three times, some damage will start to remain, and after six...it probably won't work."

"Once you hit your Limit Break, you're going to keep that in reserve," he told her. "No, you won't use it just because someone dies—if you can just use Life or Life Two, do it, and keep that one for when someone specifically dies in that way. On this trek, we're going to need it."

"I honestly think I'm in agreement with Eden on that one if Great Gospel can really do what you say," Hana agreed. "I'd rather go without Final Attack and Revive—other than Eden and Karru—so they can't figure out what's going on, and have that one in reserve so they think they've won when they haven't. Or they'd have a Pyrrhic victory, I suppose."

After a pause to think about what Eden and Hana were saying, Aeris agreed, "Okay, we'll see how it goes, then."


	68. 64-More Details

**A/N:** I'm doing A LOT of playing with ancient Spiran history from this point forward, largely because no one went as far back as I now am, and because some parts of the FFX collective story line give some very good points to play from and with.

More Details

It was early the next morning, still before dawn, when the group got on their ship to Besaid. In normal circumstances, they could probably have taken an airship, but as luck would have it, all the airships were already off on other tasks, and it would have been a week or longer before one heading in the general direction of Besaid returned to Bevelle. Since many ships had been attacked by the new enemy they had, that one was even still willing to make a final trip so far of a distance was something of a miracle, and it was a pretty full ship as a result.

The journey was quiet, and they arrived the next day around noon. In some of Yuna's oldest memories, Besaid was a small fishing village with flimsy, straw and wood huts on a tropical shore. While it was still largely a fishing 'village' on a tropical shore, it now more resembled a section of Luca's port than it did the village Yuna had grown up in. Much of it was built of stone and metal, with paved roads and solid, stable houses, shops, and warehouses. The docks were sturdy stone on equally sturdy pillions, and a shopping district near the shore had some old-fashioned straw and wood huts which were mostly open on one side to act as shop windows—clearly an attraction for tourists. They also had a small blitzball stadium appropriated by a section of beach next to the dock, and rows of palm trees lined the streets.

In fact, the only notable 'ancient' feature was the Temple housed in the middle of the city, which was where the group was bound for. It had its own wall, though not nearly the same sort as Bevelle's, a core temple building, and six arching stone bands reaching from the ground to the top level of the temple. At the gate, they were greeted and welcomed, shown to rooms which would be theirs for the duration of their stay. When Hana said they would be staying for three or four days, the current one included, the Priests readily agreed, so she bid the rest of her Guardians rest for the remainder of the day—even Eden was to wait until tomorrow before doing anything else.

When they met in the Temple's cafeteria for breakfast the following day, Eden asked, "I know Yuna said this Temple was especially ancient, but she never specified how much. I'm guessing since Sin?" Libby hopped up onto his shoulder to listen to the answer.

Hana shook her head. "No, it's actually older than that, and is probably the only one which has survived for all these thousands of years. She told me she'd once had an odd experience here—it was sort of how she found out she'd beckoned Tidus back—and it had been about the time of the war which created Sin. Traditions were different back then—for example, the brightest star in the sky, which we call the Nightberry, was called the Eye of Anri. It had implied this Temple had been a training ground for Summoners, who had all used the Ritual of the Fayth or something similar to it, and Sin had reduced it to the place she grew up in. The experience got her to wondering, eventually, if it actually pre-dated the Summoning skill itself, which far pre-dated Sin."

"And what did she find out?" Karru asked eagerly.

"That's a question I'd like to know the answer to as well," Sora agreed, gaze curious.

"It does," Hana replied, gaze fully amused. "I don't mean anything like a few hundred years—the research team Yuna put together actually found evidence that this temple has been here and somehow survived for around ten thousand years. They worshiped other Gods, and when Summoning was invented, Summoners would take one of the Gods' names upon reaching that rank, which they held until such time as they died, then someone else, a new Summoner, could use it. As an example, one God had been 'Arb of Knowledge', and one of the Summoners during the Machina War had taken the name Arb. He was also the one who created the Bedore, who later became the Al Bhed, and who had been forced to create killing machines called 'fake Bedore'." (1)

"And the practice had been going on for thousands of years before the Machina War?" Eden stared.

"Yes," she agreed. "Admittedly, they didn't find out as much as they wanted, but while some names were frequently used—like Arb, Anri, Luchel, and Velm—others weren't, like Guari and Mikka. I just find it strange to think of taking someone else's name by changing my rank—how you live with a completely different name, Eden, I have no idea."

"What does _that_ mean?" Koln asked Eden in surprise.

"The name 'Eden' is a code name!" Karru smirked. "He told me. That means it's not his birth name, just a name he uses so it's harder for people find him, his real self or people who could be used against him."

Koln blinked, then looked back at Eden to ask, "Is that actually still necessary?"

Shrugging, the blond replied, "I have no idea, but on the other hand, taking back my original name also makes no real difference. I'm a Turk; a code name was a prerequisite for joining, since our positions _did_ mean people would use others we cared about against us if they blatantly knew there were people to use. Most Turks don't have families for the same reason. And it wasn't hard to adapt to." His gaze then went to Hana as he said, "I'm going to look at the attack site today, first thing."

"I'll join you," she agreed, looking a little terse. "Anyone else?"

"I'm going, too!" Libby chirped.

"I want to look around the Temple more!" Karru readily offered. "There's a lot of neat stuff here, and it's all different from at Bevelle. I wasn't really allowed to look around before, when I was little, so I want to now."

"It's the city in general for me," Aeris added. "Then I'll probably enjoy the beach."

"With Hana and Eden I go," Gamahri put in.

"I think I'm for the beach, too, so I'll hang with Aeris," Koln said. "I haven't decided if I want to have a look at the marks, myself, yet."

"I saw the ones in New Midgar, so I'm largely just for the town as well," Sora finished. "Eden, speak with me once you've had a look at them. I want to know if your thoughts and mine are the same."

"Sure thing," the Turk agreed.

"Why would a warrior defer that to you?" Koln asked curiously, looking from Sora to Eden questioningly.

"Turks are investigators and often see things straight-out warriors don't," the blond explained. "We're used to interpreting what we're seeing into actual actions which would have taken place, and even sometimes into motives. People like Sora can usually tell you what just attacked someone by the marks they leave behind, but they can't re-create the events which happened there by the marks, for example."

Koln gave an agreeing noise and said, "In that case, I wouldn't mind hearing your assessment, too, whether I look at the marks myself or not."

"Sure," Eden agreed.

"So, is everyone done eating, then?" Hana asked curiously. The rest gave agreement as Karru, Aeris, and Eden quickly finished what was on their plates, then everyone headed out.

In the case of Hana, Eden (and Libby), and Gamahri, one of the town guards led them to the area of the attack, which was a section of town next to the docks. Rather than climb the docks (apparently), the creatures had simply run right up the beach to the houses, and the damaged area had been cordoned off until it could be fixed. In Eden's case, he was literally reading their remaining prints in the sand as 'having run', not walked, up to the homes, because the gait was wide, the prints spread about as far apart as the creatures could feasibly put them. Some of the marks had been washed away by the tide, but he also noted how the marks he could still see seemed more like a human foot rather than the longer one the four or five-inch talons would have produced.

"Not much here," Hana commented. "I'm not sure how to interpret the prints, but I feel like they're too small."

"They are," Eden agreed, Libby perched on his shoulder again. "I'm going to take a closer look at the dock, just to be sure they really did ignore it." She followed him to the nearest on the sand as Gamahri climbed up onto the main dock to observe what was above.

It didn't take Eden long to find many, many small scratches in the side of the dock, making him frown in pure confusion. Could something else have put the marks there? They all looked quite fresh, and brushing his fingers over them—caused him to yank his hand back with a hiss of pain, then hold it up in front of his face so he could see the bleeding cuts the edges of the scratches had put on his fingers. Hana gave him a worried look and cast a healing spell on him, which took care of the problem, then the two kept moving along the beach to the water's edge. More accurately, the tide was rising slowly, so their feet were soaked when the waves came up the shore.

"Eden, up," Gamahri said from above, so the blond looked up to see the Ronso offering a hand. He couldn't see anything besides more of the very sharp marks on the lower level, so took the hand to let Gamahri pull him onto the top of the dock. The bi-pedal feline then pointed to something near them before turning back to Hana to help her up there as well.

Looking at the object, Eden had to blink rapidly before moving over to it to look more closely—it was a piece of armor like the kind the creatures had worn on their arms which had fallen between two damaged crates. In other words, they _had_ been on the dock, and no one had cared to inform anyone of the damage up top. The crates had clearly been 'sliced' apart, not broken, and they weren't weather-worn. Whatever had been in them, if anything had been, was gone, but as Eden leaned down to pick up the piece of armor, Libby tapped his shoulder and pointed at something.

Armor in one hand, he pushed aside the leaning, broken pieces of the crate Libby had pointed to, and saw a piece of dark blue metal which made him think of the coloring on the scales on the creatures' backs. Pulling it out and straightening, he faced Hana and Gamahri to show them the new find as he asked, "Is there somewhere we can get this analyzed?"

"There should be. The guards will know it," Hana told him. "In the meantime, let's keep looking around in case you find any other samples." Gamahri just gave a grave nod.

The three headed back to the shore and up to the buildings nearest the beach, which were a warehouse, a few small shops, and a few homes. There was a stench coming from them which Eden knew meant the bodies had been left exactly as they were, making him stop and face Hana.

"They left the bodies there to rot," he told her bluntly, and her eyes widened as she paled. "I don't know why, but this is going to be _hard_ for someone _used_ to seeing dead bodies—I'm not so sure you're ready to jump right into it." As she opened her mouth, gaze clearly angry, he said, "Hana, I'm not trying to say you're weak, I'm trying to say even people who specialize in examining dead bodies would have trouble keeping their breakfasts down, just from the smell _alone_ , let alone the—absolutely disgusting _sight_ _that's_ going to be. _I'm_ even going to have trouble with it."

She didn't reply immediately, and Gamahri rested a hand on her shoulder. "Caution. If you need, leave. This smell is very strong. Insects have been breeding."

The words made the younger woman's eyes widen, then she gave an agreeing nod. "I'll be careful not to push myself too hard, too quickly. You both will have to as well." When both nodded in reply, she drew in a sharp breath and said, "I already don't like the smell. Let's see how much we can manage, then."

They moved to the nearest building, the warehouse. Like on the Planet, it was largely, if not entirely, made of metal, and heat had gathered in it, making the reeking interior hot, humid, and plain uncomfortable enough that Gamahri had to leave. Eden plugged his nose and breathed through his mouth, and had to squint a bit through the faint mist in the air. Libby muttered a small noise which sounded like, "Eeeeewwww..."

The place was a mess. While there only seemed to be four bodies, all of them swarming with insects and insect maggots, every crate and package in the room had been torn open, shredded, and scattered. At least the bodies were largely all together, not spread around in parts, and it was only the blood from them which had made rather large (already dry) pools. Rotting, inflamed flesh already infested made the blond very glad he wouldn't have to touch them or try to move them—that would be rather messy, even if they had partially petrified by then. The only major problem was how he'd have a hard time seeing marks in the bodies around the swollen flesh and new intervention—the bugs had begun at the wounds and mostly eaten away those parts.

"It stings," Hana muttered, voice a little off from also having plugged her nose, but it was her eyes she was rubbing.

Yes, Eden's eyes were also feeling the slight sting, so he had to give a faint sigh as he asked, "Exactly what liquid in here do you think is causing the mist in the air?"

She blanched, gaze on the damaged crates rather than the bodies. "I think I would rather _not_ think further on that topic," she said. He snorted. "They seem to have ransacked the place, like they _really are looking_ for something."

"That's true," Eden agreed. "I wonder if they're actually looking for something small or just have no clue _what_ they're looking for, but will 'know it when they find it'..."

He moved closer to one of the bodies and examined it more closely, finding the damage point—his heart—only because the bone was cut there (and he was having trouble keeping his meal down). He was sure the other three bodies would be similar, so turned to the room, largely finding what he'd noted about the crates outside. There were no marks besides some small scratches on the floor—none of the walls or support pillars had damage, but the interior of the machine lift which carted multiple crates had been shredded. The lack of blood inside likely meant no one had been in it at the time of the attack.

Crouching, Eden looked more closely at the marks on the floor, finding that they were spaced for the creatures' gaits, meaning they alternated between short and long, walk and run. It appeared three had entered the warehouse, and one had killed the people while the other two had gone ransacking. The killer had then crossed to the far side of the bodies to ransack there.

"Eden, these are empty!" Hana called from where she'd made her way to the back of the room, the far corner behind a long shelf. When he joined here there, he saw a series of broken crates which did indeed seem to be lacking some shredded— _some_ thing. Nothing was in them or around them besides the pieces of the crates.

He shook his head and said, "Okay, so we should see if anyone knows what should have been in these crates, but otherwise, we can leave now."

"Thank Shiva!" Hana replied, turning and heading for the door, deliberately without looking at the bodies. Eden followed her quickly with Libby, rejoining Gamahri outside.

"First shop was fish, so cool. Smells like rotting fish. Nothing missing, marks like Sphere and dock showed. Marks on floor. Two entered," the Ronso told them, looking very displeased as he rubbed the bridge of his nose gently.

"Hold on, you can tell _how many_ there were?" Hana gaped at him.

"The warehouse had three, one which went after the people and the far wall and the other two which split at the door and started ransacking," Eden informed her, and Gamahri nodded as Hana stared. "Their talons, or claws, or whatever they are, leave scratches in the floor where they walked. You can tell the speed they were moving at, too." Libby nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Oh," she blinked, still looking amazed.

"See, that's part of your problem with relying on Memory Spheres," Eden told her, looking a little amused. "Yes, it has its uses, but it _also_ means none of you know basic observation or tracking skills, you can't build an image of what happened just by looking at what's around you. Now, we still have places to check, quite a few of them, so we'd better keep working. Gamahri, did you want to take some on your own, and Hana can go with whichever of us she wants to so we can show her what to look for and what it means?"

"Good idea. Faster idea. Done sooner, out of this—mess sooner," Gamahri agreed. "You take Hana—already too much talking." He made a face, then loped to the next shop, so Eden blinked, shrugged, and took Hana's arm to lead her towards the house which was next in line.

At the door, he stopped and pointed at the floor as he said, "Look down and tell me what you see."

She did, and blinked as she leaned down to look more closely. "Scratches."

"Right. Now, here's what to look for..."

FoW

Karru was wandering the lower levels of the Temple, definitely ones below ground, finding many very interesting murals on the walls. They had been telling a story up to that point, a rather interesting one which she thought was about the training of the Summoners from ages long ago. Except, she had just come to a break in the murals, followed by a completely different set of images.

At first, those crossing, straight lines with short, straight, diagonal jogs made absolutely no sense to her, but as she progressed down the hall, they kept forming new patterns, some with more lines, some with less. Some old ones ended, and some new ones began, but then she frowned and went back to the beginning, and used her finger to trace each one down the hall—until she found a single strand which, despite crossings from other ones, kept going, right to the end of the hall. The other side had one as well. She felt like there was something oddly familiar about them, but she couldn't place them, and she had to wonder why they led to a blank wall.

Yet, the only time those two lines, one on each side of the hall, ended was when they hit the wall, and even then, she more had the impression they were _bypassing_ the wall, not _stopping_ at it. Facing the wall thoughtfully, she eyed it for a few moments—then blinked as it shifted to show her a panel on each side of the door, touching the lines which reached that far. She realized her eyes were doing something strange, her irises actually spinning, sort of, so she could see the panels, making her swallow nervously and make sure she had her weapons on her.

But, as always with children and Al Bhed, curiosity overrode caution and she approached the wall to look at the panels. They were definitely types of computer panels, and designed with Al Bhed script, listing numbers and letters on a keyboard below a screen. Smiling, she realized she could probably hack them, even if it would be hard because she was pretty sure she could only open the door by activating both panels at the same time. Oh, she was quite pleased, since this was a real challenge, and she wanted to see what the panels were for.

Had no Al Bhed ever looked at this wall before in order to open it? It would be pretty strange if they hadn't, wouldn't it? But then, it was only when Aunt Yuna set up that team to search the Temple and the area around it for evidence of its extended history that some parts of the Temple had been opened up again, and this was one of them. She'd have thought some Al Bhed would have been in the group, but it had also been quite a long time ago when they had done the search—over a thousand years if she was remembering right—and she was sure Aunt Rikku would have been there, too. And that other Al Bhed would have wanted to study it since then.

Putting those questions out of her mind, Karru lifted her hands to the panels and began typing on them, tentatively at first as she thought about what to type in. The first thing she tried was 'Bedore' (since Al Bhed was too new of a name for the place), which did nothing. It wasn't that it did nothing in that sense—it activated the screen and typed the letters onto it, but then the letters were erased automatically. She tried a few other words, which were also erased, then decided to try a computer hacking code to tell a programmed door to open. Those lines didn't disappear, but they didn't open the door. Maybe she needed a code to unlock it, too? What else?

After several minutes of playing, typing in the panels different commands related to doors opening, the door finally slid downward into the floor, and she could see the space beyond. She'd been right about the line which went right to the door going past it, as both proceeded down the walls of a short hall and around the corners into a large, circular room. The lines had begun branching out again after passing the space of the thick, stone door, and as she stared at the ones across from the door, and subsequently quite far away from her, she realized they were just like the data paths on circuit boards.

The entire hall and room were one large machina!

It seemed to be benign, at least, as she stepped into the room slowly. There wasn't much in it, except for some strange marks on the floor and an old-fashioned Sphere projector table with five Spheres on it. Blinking, she made her way to the table, watching the marks warily, especially the circle around the projector table. Nothing in particular happened, but when she was standing about half a foot from the table, the Sphere in the middle lit up and a projection rose above it.

Nothing except one man she thought looked oddly familiar appeared in the projection. The man had long, black hair and a fairly long beard and mustache, spectacles, and an open robe over pants and a shirt. The robe was very brightly colored, something like the bright tapestries sold in some of the cities, his with a many-colored star-burst pattern over a green base. The pants and shirt were dull and plain in comparison, black for the former and medium blue for the latter. She also noticed he was a scholar type with his hair kept in a ponytail, but right then, his _expression_ was _bemused_ as he looked at her evenly.

Projections couldn't do that! Not like that, like he was _actually looking at her_!

"So someone has found their way in here," he said—and she stumbled slightly from shock.

What? Exactly what _was_ this man?

 **Notes:**

(1) Much of these details, outside Yuna exploring the Temple further and finding more of it than was shown in FFX/X-2, come from the FFX-2.5 _~Eien no Daisho~_ , which DID imply the Temple predated Sin and the Machina War. Those, and several other details in this chapter, come from this segment of the story. Why? It wasn't the best continuation of the FFX story line there could have been, but it DID open up A LOT of Spiran history and a lot of things a creative writer could play with. So I'm playing.


	69. 65-Preparing Another Ritual

Preparing Another Ritual

After a long silence as the man assessed Karru, he asked, "How many years have passed, young Machina?"

"Machina?" she repeated questioningly, gaze completely confused. "My people are the Al Bhed, and we're basically human." This couldn't be 'just' a hologram if it could apparently interact with her like any other human.

His gaze turned amused, then he said bluntly, "You are Machina or you could never have opened the door or activated the projection. Only the Machina race can see the access panels, and only Machina could have coded the door open. It is clear you are a child of their kind. It must have been quite some time for you to have adapted to such forms as mirroring us. Longer still if you no longer know such basics of your own race."

"Machina can't mate with humans, but Al Bhed can—I'm half," she told him. "So we can't be—Machina." When he sighed faintly, she asked, "But what do you mean, the Machina are a 'race'? Weren't they all created by humans? I mean, even Reeve managed to create really cute machina kids who are taken as sentient beings by their planetary sentience."

"Oh, is Kaillyr still part of your lives, then?" he asked with a pleased smile. "That is good news."

"He only became part of it again about six months ago when another planetary sentience named Minerva came here," she told him flatly. He stared in wide-eyed surprise, and she sighed faintly. "Look, we don't actually know how old this Temple _is_ , or when in its existence you—stuck yourself in a Sphere, I guess? We can guess it's over ten thousand years old, though. Some answers would be really nice."

"My...this is a difficulty, then. I had been expecting to have on hand a record-keeper of the Machina to pass my knowledge on to, but now...I have nothing so expedient, and my Essence Sphere will not last much longer," he sighed faintly.

"Uh...what's an Essence Sphere, exactly?" she asked slowly.

"You know what basic Spheres are?" he asked, his tone and gaze wary.

"Yes, of course. We have Spheres all over the place, usually to store memories or histories or to record data. We also use them for holographic projections for things like games and lessons, to be able to fly with jets, and lots of other things. We even have Dresspheres to let people use skills they couldn't use on their own," Karru answered in amusement. When he blinked in mild surprise and interest, she added, "I've just never heard of an Essence Sphere before."

He nodded and explained, "Essence Spheres take one's soul and stores it in a state of stasis until certain requirements are met, then they awaken to do the task the Sphere was created for. In my case, that would be to pass on my knowledge. Even then, the Sphere has aged so much that being activated has weakened it significantly, and it may not last long enough for me to actively teach another."

"They store your _soul_?" she gasped in horror. "That sounds like what happened to Vanya! Wait, if it's like that, then maybe you can become a fayth if you have a Summoner?"

"Summoner?" he asked curiously.

"Uh—I'm not the best one to explain that," Karru blinked. "How long will you be able to stay—like this before the Sphere breaks?"

"The Sphere is likely to only survive for two days at most. That is a generous estimate," he explained.

She looked at him quietly for a long moment, then asked, "Do you want to die, or do you want to _live_?"

His brow rose as he said, "Death is unavoidable."

"That isn't what I asked, though. If you had the choice, would you _want_ to live?"

"Of course I would want to," he told her in amusement. "Very much so. This was a method of extending my life, so I willingly took it. Few survive the process just to form the Sphere."

"Good, that means you have a strong will. I'll teach you the Hymn of the Fayth—maybe you'll kind of get what it is then? And Hana and Eden are both Summoners, so you could pick either of them to become your Summoner. Um, can we move the Sphere out of this room, or is it too brittle?"

"It is too brittle," he replied, blinking a few times as he assessed her words. "Are you saying my spirit could go on living were I to take this route?"

"You can even become physical enough to eat things—Tenza, she's a fayth, does it all the time. I think most of the others didn't care all that much about doing so, they just still had lives they wanted to live. But I'll need to bring Hana and Eden here, which means I have to go get them, or at least get close enough to the surface again to call them," Karru told him. "And Libby, she's a record keeper and a machina, so you could also give everything to her _and_ become a fayth. I think you'll freak Eden out, though, because what you did to yourself would have made it like you were in an isolation tank. The only thing which would be in your favor is that you spent most of your time sleeping while you couldn't feel anything."

"...I see," he said quietly, thinking for a minute. "If this place is below ground, much of the Temple must be covered now. Over ten thousand years...But it had been nearly that in my era..." He fell silent again as Karru stared at him, then looked back at her and said, "Teach me the...Hymn of the Fayth, then, and go find the two you meant. They may enter the room as freely as you, once you have opened the door for them. It will seal again once you have left."

"Okay," she agreed.

The fourteen-year-old girl then taught him the Hymn of the Fayth and told him to focus on his wishes, those dreams he still had, and when Eden and Hana got there to talk with him, they would be able to finish the process by calling the pyreflies—since there weren't many in the lower levels of the Temple. Once she'd done that, she ran out, hearing the door shut behind her as she headed out to see if Hana and Eden had returned yet.

She ran up the halls, lifts, stairs, and ramps, pausing to check whether the 'PHS' the people of Spira had started commonly using was going to work, only to find she had to be on the main level for that. Shrugging, she figured it wouldn't actually matter at that point, unless the group heading for the area which had been attacked would still be awhile, so decided to check the gates and ask the guards if they had seen her Summoner and fellow Guardians. As it turned out, she actually didn't have to ask them, because they were just returning as she was getting there.

Running forward, Karru got between Eden and Hana, seizing their wrists as she said, "Come on! He doesn't have long!" She then pulled them with her, heading back inside the Temple as they both yelped, but let her pull them. Gamahri followed them, just looking puzzled.

"What are you talking about, Karru?" Hana asked worriedly.

"I found a hidden room no one had been in before," she replied as they stepped into the Temple. "Why no one had been in it since it was sealed, I don't know, because I'm sure Al Bhed were included in the people Yuna would have had looking into it, but anyway—so, I got into the room, and a strange Sphere activated. The 'projection' wasn't a projection at all, his soul is stuck in that Sphere, and has been for a long, long time, and the Sphere will shatter soon. I don't know how long he has, but he just said 'two days was being generous.' So, the sooner he's out of that Sphere as a fayth, the better."

At that point, she had to let go of them to activate the main lift, but saw the two Summoners trade shocked, horrified expressions as Gamahri gave his head a shake. Once they were in the lift, Karru faced them and said, "He _chose_ to have his soul put to sleep in something they called an 'Essence Sphere', and he only woke up now because of me. He did it because he didn't want to die, and apparently, the process wasn't a guarantee of actually living longer—since he survived, I'm pretty sure he has the will to become a fayth. But for that, he needs a Summoner."

"So...does 'he' have a name?" Eden asked dryly as they stepped off the lift on the lower levels.

"Yes, but I didn't think to ask it," the younger girl blushed faintly, rubbing the back of her head. "I was more worried about figuring out other things." She led them through the halls and back to the one with the panels—only to find she couldn't see them. Pausing, she frowned faintly, staring at the wall where she knew they were.

"Karru, this is a blank wall," Hana sighed faintly.

"No, no, there's a door here, just—what made them appear last time...?" she muttered to herself, still staring at the wall. Hana and Eden traded puzzled looks, but waited there quietly. After about a minute, the panels re-materialized as Karru felt her eyes doing that strange focus thing again. With a grin, she went to them to type in the codes—she modified them for the ones she thought had actually gotten the door open—and soon after, the wall slid downward again to let them back into the room.

The man above the projector table turned to face them as they entered, gazing at the group oddly, then commenting, "The Ronso are at peace with the rest of the world? Interesting."

Hana and Eden both blinked and turned to look at Gamahri for a moment, who just shrugged, then looked back at the man above the table. "They have been mostly at peace with the rest of the world for several thousand years," Hana offered. "Karru said you're an actual soul who may be able to become a fayth and an Aeon for a Summoner. Is that true?"

"If you would kindly explain to me the details, I suspect so. The child—Karru, you called her?—she claimed she was not the best one to explain the situation as a whole," the man agreed.

"Are you actually _okay_ being in a form like that, which can't interact with the physical world properly?" Eden asked with his brow furrowed.

The man blinked at the blond, then smiled wryly and answered, "In fact, this form only becomes an issue in itself when the Essence Sphere, and therefore the soul within it, are not in stasis. The creation of an Essence Sphere results in termination of the soul and the destruction of the Sphere in approximately sixty percent of cases, even for those who are fully willing to undergo the process. I had no desire to die and have my knowledge lost to the world, so I voluntarily underwent the process, and have been in stasis here since. The child mentioned a 'record keeper' who could take my knowledge before we attempt this...fayth transformation?"

"I can explain—" Hana began to say as Libby hopped onto the table.

"Hana, Libby, just wait," Eden cut them off, thinking quickly. Libby stopped and turned to face him as Hana scowled at him. "Sorry, but this is actually important," he added to his senior Summoner.

"In what way?" she scowled. "Libby should be fully able to work while I explain things."

"Usually, yes," Eden agreed. "I'm not an expert on technology—that's actually Karru's field of expertise. But tell me, the Spheres operate based on chains of computer code commands, yes?"

"They do—we'd never be able to program them for specific things if they didn't," Karru agreed, and Hana nodded reluctantly.

Eden looked at the man and asked him, "What happens to the Sphere—what is it programmed to do—if you pass off all your knowledge?"

He was silent for a long moment before saying, "It will dissolve and release me."

"Right, that's what I thought," the blond nodded. "Now, what's the actual 'knowledge' the Sphere was created to pass on—something specific or everything in general?"

The man's gaze sharpened with recognition as he said, "If I were to pass on 'all' of my knowledge of Machina, machines, and technology, the Sphere would dissolve before I could transition to another form, its—and my—purpose fulfilled."

Hana's mouth opened in an 'oh' of shock as Karru blinked and gasped faintly. Eden nodded and looked at Libby to ask, "Do you think you have enough storage space to take the majority of his data on machines and technology? Something about the way he separated Machina from machines makes me think that's the best one for him to refrain from sharing with you—he can just tell us about it."

"Yeah, he called 'Machina' a race, and said I'm one," Karru threw in. Hana and Gamahri both turned to stare at her in shock.

"I should be able to take most of it," Libby said to Eden. "I have lots of space—all of yours and Genesis' stuff only takes about...five percent of my available space, and now I can access Reeve's new mainframe from on the surface, even without Stray Hope's help, so I can send it all to him if it really takes _that_ much space."

Eden gave her an amused look and said, "I guess we'll see, then, won't we? Go ahead with that, then. By the way, mister, what's your name?"

"My...? Oh, of course—I had neglected to give it to the chi—Karru," the man blinked, then gave an amused look as Libby faced him. "So, this—child, Libby, can begin recording the agreed upon data, then?"

"I can take it any time," Libby agreed happily, ears waving.

"Here, then," he agreed, and activated something on the table which turned on one of the four Spheres surrounding his, which was in the middle. Libby focused on the new projection as images began scrolling rapidly past, and he added, "Two of the other three Spheres will activate in succession. The last will not. Follow them as they activate."

"Got it," Libby agreed absently.

When he looked back at Eden, he found the blond gazing at him with irritation, so said, "The process will take hours. Better to begin now," he told the blond, who blinked, then gave a sigh and nod. "My name is Tusati (1). Now, about Summoners and fayth and Aeons...?"

Hana and Eden took the time to explain it to him, and Eden found him asking most of the same questions he'd asked of Yuna, demanding actual explanations, processes, and reasons, not just a 'because that's how it is'. Hana wasn't able to answer most of the questions, and was as surprised by the data Eden could fill in as Karru, Gamahri, and Tusati were.

Finally, they were finished, and Libby was still recording data, though she was part-way through the second Sphere by then. It had been a few hours, after all, and Tusati looked thoughtful as he assessed the data he'd been given. One thing was clear—the man was a scholar, and had an incredible mind. He knew a great deal about everything from the arrays operating spells to computer coding, and he and Eden shared many thought processes.

"So the only thing left for you to decide, Tusati, is which of us you would bond to," Hana told the man to finish the explanation.

It was Gamahri who said flatly, "That would be Eden."

Everyone turned to stare at him, and he returned their gazes evenly—until Karru chuckled and said, "Yeah, I guess so—those two are definitely on the same wavelength, but Hana is _way_ out in left field."

"That doesn't negate my being able to take him as an Aeon, Karru," Hana told her dryly.

"No, but I've kinda noticed a trend with Summoners and their Aeons," Karru replied with a faint smirk. "Their personalities and interests are usually very similar. Every one of Aunt Yuna's fayth are really just aspects of herself, and all of them, except Tenza, are really mild. Even _Tenza_ 's pretty mild, for a permanently ten-year-old kid. Sori's are all hyper, and Janira's (2) are all temperamental. Eden has Vanya—a cybernetics doctor—and you have Auron—a warrior. Yeah, Auron's intelligent, but he's not a scholar, and both Vanya and Tusati are scholars, just like Eden. He even _said_ it's knowledge and books and learning he goes for when he needs to forget about the real world for awhile, and that's what he does _for fun_. Seriously, I'm sure Vanya and Tusati would quite happily help him with his research, or him help them, but _you'd_ mostly not want anything to do with things like like that, Hana. I mean—even _Carbuncle_ is more of a scholar than _you_ are."

After a long silence, Eden shrugged and looked up at Tusati to ask, "The other thing is the similarity between you and Vanya, even if you were willing and she wasn't. I don't actually have a choice in the matter—it's up to you to decide on one of us."

"Usually, there's agreement both ways, though," Hana added in amusement.

"I see," Tusati agreed thoughtfully. "What I most noticed was that it was Eden, the apparent 'apprentice', who was able to answer my questions. Perhaps for those whose minds are of a—milder sort, those questions would mean very little, but for one such as myself, they were very important to my grasp of the process, and by extension, my agreement to it." Hana and Eden both blinked, and he went on, "As such, I do believe Eden is my better choice, as he seeks out the same knowledge and answers as I do. We shall have to wait until Libby has finished with the data in the three Spheres, however, at that time, it would be Eden to assist in my forming as a fayth."

"If we set up the Ritual—" Hana began.

"No. Just—no," Eden glared at her. "Not in a situation like this. Auron was one thing—he was unsent, first, and could fully interact with his environment—but this is actually a private affair dependent on Tusati. Just like with Vanya."

The Summoner glared at Eden and said, "Just because I'm not Aunt Yuna, it doesn't mean what I'm saying has no value. We don't _need_ to turn this into a public spectacle, Eden—it can happen right here with only myself, you, and my other Guardians, maybe a Priest or a few. And our two fayth. It's okay to limit it to that. When we held the one for Auron to become a fayth and an Aeon, it was _deliberately_ arranged as a spectacle, both for _your_ people to see it for the first time, to realize how much we honor it, and partly because Auron is a hero at Aunt Yuna's level— _everyone_ was going to _want_ to watch. That _isn't_ how extensive the Ritual of the Fayth normally is."

After a long silence as the Summoner and apprentice glared at one another, Tusati commented, "Oh, my. I had thought these two were the 'master and apprentice', though it seems such is not the case."

"It's not," Karru agreed. "Hana just finished her apprenticeship with Aunt Yuna when Aunt Yuna found Eden, and he became her apprentice. Eden's with us instead of Aunt Yuna right now because she thought he'd be better to travel with us because—I guess he's really used to traveling? She wanted someone with us who could make sure we didn't do anything too stupid while traveling. And I think she hoped Eden would at least hear Hana out, since she's a full Summoner, not an apprentice."

"A Summoner who is less informed than the apprentice," Tusati replied in wry amusement. Hana looked at him with a glare, but he looked at Eden to ask, "Where did you learn the answers to my questions?"

"From Yuna," the blond replied in amusement. "She knows her field _well_ , but she tends to give certain basic knowledge and only fill in the details if her apprentice asks. Because I'm not Spiran, and I'm a scholar, I asked, so she gave me all the details I wanted. Hana never asked because it didn't actually _matter_ to her. As far as Summoning goes, Hana knows what she needs to know, otherwise Yuna wouldn't have let her leave the apprentice phase—the details are only for people like you and me, but don't much affect the skill or one's ability to answer the questions the average person asks."

He looked thoughtful for a minute, then asked, "So why the argument?"

"Even though Eden's _mostly_ not hard to get along with, he actually has a temper and is prone the same behavior which led to said argument," Hana sighed faintly. "Aunt Yuna has had some trouble with him—nothing too bad, just time consuming—because he's a certified genius and has a bad habit of thinking that means he _always_ knows better than everyone else." It was Eden's turn to glare at her.

Tusati huffed a small chuckle. "I daresay that would be true, to some degree, of those who are naturally scholars. How long does the Ritual take to prepare?"

"Since our room as it is happens to be quite well-lit, if we enlist a hand from the Priests for the preparation, we can likely have it done by evening," Hana mused. "It will end up being fairly late, so we'll need some heaters in here, and anyone intending to be inside the circle still needs the cleansing bath..." She paused and looked up at him to ask, "Is there a way we can keep the door open without Karru so she can also join us to participate?"

"To the best of my knowledge, if a person is standing in the doorway, it should remain open—that is a safeguard to prevent deaths," he said. "Though the person could not move from it without needing a Machina to open it again."

"Yeah, we'll be asking for more details about that later," Eden agreed dryly. "But for now, while Libby's still recording the data you can give her, we need to prepare the Ritual—if that's how you want to do it. Which also means retrieving the rest of Hana's Guardians." He then looked at Hana and said, "But as things stand, do we even have enough people to fill the roles for the Ritual?"

"You and I won't be in the outer circle," Hana told him. "That leaves five Guardians. A Priest could take the final role, or maybe Libby could do it—if she qualifies as sentient, it's possible. She'd have to join us for the bath, if that was the case. Our bigger worry is where the array and the Aeon glyph would appear—we _don't_ need _another_ one etched onto the ceiling of a residential room."

" _That_ won't happen," Eden snorted. "More like, the glyph would appear in _this_ room, and only Karru can even _get in here_ —we didn't see anything at all where she was apparently manipulating something outside."

"You couldn't see the panels, even after they reappeared for me?" Karru stared.

"I _did_ say only Machina could access this room, Karru," Tusati answered in a dry tone. "Though the Ritual may be interesting, and possibly more reliable than not? I would like to see how the simpler form functions."

The others looked at him, then nodded and Hana said, "I'll go find the Priests to get everything started, and to go find Aeris, Sora, and Koln. If you three want to stay here for now, that's fine—until the baths are actually ready for the participants, it isn't an issue for you to stay."

"If you're sure..." Eden blinked at her. She nodded, so he agreed, "I'll be here, then. Karru and Gamahri can do whatever they want."

Hana nodded and headed out of the room, Karru trotting after her—but Gamahri went only as far as the door so he could stand in the opening, leaning against the wall which served as one doorjamb.

Eden still had mixed feelings about what was happening, but he thought it was okay, maybe. A sudden thought had him call Vanya to him, and the woman materialized beside him as Tusati watched with fascination. Without even a word exchanged, Vanya recognized his soul as one like hers, so faced Eden to ask, "Where is this chamber?"

"Besaid Temple, the lower levels in a room no one could previously access," Eden told her. "Apparently, Tusati has been here for many thousands of years. Oh, Tusati, meet Vanya, my fayth, whose Aeon form is called Seraph."

"I see," he agreed. "Shall we speak, then, Vanya?" With her agreement, the two of them and Eden discussed the 'Essence Spheres' and Ed's past while they waited for the Ritual to be prepared.

 **Notes:**

(1) If anyone thinks this name is familiar, it is, and it's very deliberate. You'll get the story behind the similarity as the last arc progresses.

(2) These are random names you don't have to remember.


	70. 66-Unpleasant Facts

**A/N:** This is a shorthand Ritual—the description of the Aeon Tusati becomes and the accompanying anchor image are most of it. Yes, this Aeon is quite literally my own creation, since nothing existing seemed to fit him.

Unpleasant Facts

Just as Hana had thought, everything for the Ritual was only ready fairly late in the evening, and they were arriving back in the room after the cleansing bath at around ten at night. Heaters had been moved into the room, as well as a few additional lights, but otherwise, once Libby had finished recording the data she was supposed to, the Priests had been able to put the usual sheets of slate down on the table—doing so apparently didn't interfere with the projection of an Essence Sphere. Placing the sheets meant they'd be able to move the resulting Aeon anchor image to another room before they sealed the room again.

It was a simpler ritual by far than the one for Auron had been. Some of the Priests stayed in the room to chant and lend their support, but generally, it was just Hana, Eden, and the rest of Hana's Guardians. And Libby. Who, as it turned out, could actually fill one of the roles as the six pyrefly guides. In their case, behind Eden was Aeris, and to his right and left were Sora and Libby while Karru was behind Hana and Koln and Gamahri were to her left and right, respectively. In actual process, it was very similar, and had the same general result, though the Aeon Tusati became was completely new, in all ways.

His form was largely human, though also mostly obscured by a long, hooded cloak in deep green and with patterns running down its length from hood to bottom hem which resembled the lines on the walls—like a circuit board—glowing in multi-colors. What could be seen of his face was further obscured by a half-mask in silvery metal which oddly resembled a beak with goggles which lended him an owl-ish appearance, though his mouth and chin seemed to be flesh, and some soft 'feathers' of hair in purple peeked out from under the hood.

When he lifted his hands to look at them, everyone could see a flesh one on the right and a metal—cybernetic—one on the left. His clothing under that was a robe-like device in gold, with deep green pants, also with the circuit board design on them from top to bottom in multi-colors, though his left leg didn't seem quite right. An ancient tome in gold with deep green lettering on the front cover appeared above his flesh hand, and when he touched it, it flipped open, making him grin and tip the book so Eden could see it—mathematical and scientific equations and computer code in something similar to Al Bhed script. Eden also had to grin in wry amusement at that.

The Aeon anchor image showed the black haired man in a face-down position with both hands stretched out to the sides, the one on the right in flesh and the one on the left clearly cybernetic. In the flesh hand was the golden tome, though it was closed, and the left was turned to pass behind the image background and re-emerge with glowing fingertips. The background was black except for a section a foot wide around the outer rim, which was deep green with two gold circles edging either side of the green, and was filled with scientific and mathematical equations, also in gold.

On the left side of his head was feathery hair in purple which looked remarkably like a wing; that same shoulder and side were covered by the circuit board cloak, which also flared out similarly to a wing, the hood down. His back was bare, showing his right leg covered in the circuit-board-like pants and matching boots, but other than the bottom of the left foot, nothing else of that leg was visible under the cloak. Because of his face-down position, the mask wasn't visible, but to everyone's surprise, three long, vicious scars crossed his back diagonally from the left shoulder to the right hip, the two to the outside slightly shorter than the middle one.

When asked his official name, he replied, "Apparently, Cygnus."

By then, everyone was exhausted, so they all turned in to sleep as the Priests moved the anchor to another room—and found that all of the Spheres which had been under the slate panels had shattered into little more than an ash-like powder. Morning came a little late for them, so they went to a small restaurant near the beach to eat their mid-morning meal, and it was there where they were able to compare notes about what they had found. Of course, they waited until after they had eaten to do so, and even Karru seemed less energetic than usual.

It was Sora who opened the discussion by asking, "Your assessment of the damage done by the creatures, Eden?"

"They don't have a clear target," he replied. "I'm really getting the impression that they're confused about what they're supposed to be doing. Also, there seems to be some evidence that their metallic bodies have some degree of self-modification ability, especially their hands and feet. Like—they could have normal hands and feet if they wanted to, but because they're coming onto land _expecting_ battle, they have their weapons active deliberately. Like they were created for a war, and are still expecting one, so they're _looking_ for one, and not finding it. They're also hijacking some of the goods from the places they ransack, and after seeing more than one warehouse and shop they entered, the only things which were unaccounted for were metals."

"What?" Hana blinked in surprise. "We couldn't tell what they took!"

"We don't know _exactly_ what they took," Eden agreed. "But Hana, think back to everything we saw scattered around in the places we searched. There was glass, wood, plastic, Spheres, cloth—but no trace of anything metal. What we _don't_ know is what _kind_ of metal they took. Was it all kinds, or just a specific one kept in those buildings? Was it a few types, but not necessarily 'all' kinds? They didn't try to take the steel walls or shelves or support beams, so either they wanted to leave the integrity of the building intact, or they don't need steel. Everything else—we don't know."

"Lots of machines, and old machinas, have self-repair programs which they follow," Karru offered. "If they have an actual replacement part to use, they'll take it, but they're usually programmed to find materials and make the parts they need if there aren't any handy. They're probably doing the same thing if they're sort of like a machina."

"That's true," Koln agreed. "What else did you find, Eden?"

"They seem to be killing quickly and cleanly for the sole purpose of leaving no witnesses," he replied. "This was a trend we already suspected, since they're going out of their way to make sure there's no record of their presence besides things like their foot prints. I have the impression that they try so hard to make it quick and clean because they would rather not do random killing in the first place, but until they find whatever war they're looking for, they feel they don't have a choice."

"But if they've been everywhere on Spira and not found it, shouldn't they have realized there _isn't_ one?" Aeris asked with a puzzled look.

"That depends on if they have my mapping ability or not," Libby put in as she climbed up to Ed's shoulder. "Stray Hope doesn't remember anything except the name of a place we only visited once, but I remember everything about it. If she went back to Gongaga now, and no one told her the name of where she was, she'd think she had never been there before. If they weren't programmed with mapping, they'd never remember they had been there, and no one is telling them any names of the places they've been for them to know that way. Maybe they have some visual cue they're programmed to recognize, but if the 'cue' doesn't exist anymore, they have no choice but to keep looking."

Everyone around the table traded looks, but it was Gamahri who asked, "Could remembering be taught?"

Libby was silent for a minute as one of her ears twitched repeatedly, then she said, "They would have to the same way humans learn—over time. In human terms, I have photographic memory, but most of the Cait Sith types, and most other machines and machinas, have the memory capacity of a petulant boy who doesn't want to go to school and learn, so they forget everything very quickly. But, just like the boy, they can learn, it just takes them longer to remember it. Well, unless they aren't sentient. Like, if Stray Hope visited Gongaga for two weeks every year, after a few years, she'd remember who and what is there. These creatures are sentient, so they could learn—over time."

"And the problem is the 'over time' part," Hana sighed faintly. "Should we check the nearby forest for any unusual activity and to give Karru some real-time combat experience? That would also be the best place to call Tusati so he can tell us what he means about Karru."

"Yeah, I want an answer to that, too," Karru agreed. "And practice is good—Eden showed me that in the last few days before we left Bevelle."

The others smiled wryly, then all of them headed for the woods nearby after collecting a meal to take with them. They mostly just meandered along the paths, looking for anything which might prove valuable, with Hana and Eden in the lead with Karru as she mostly fought the enemies who attacked them. The other two helped her if it looked like she was in over her head, Hana largely to heal her and Eden to take care of some of the attackers so there wouldn't be so many. Since it was largely weak, wolf-like monsters they were fighting, something similar to Kalm Fangs, Karru could mostly fight them on her own from the start. She learned quickly with the real experience, and the group kept going until she was tired enough to ask for a break.

By then, they were deep in the forest, so as everyone gathered around, Eden Summoned Tusati in his fayth—and fully human—form. The man looked around in puzzled confusion, then faced them questioningly.

"Could you tell us about Karru and the 'race' you call 'Machina'?" Eden asked of the man, and his eyes lit with recognition as he nodded.

"Yes, I expected the topic to be revisited, as the child had no idea of her own race," Tusati answered, then looked at Karru. "I believe something has been lost over the many millennia between my time and yours, Karru, because your race should have been common knowledge."

"But I'm not a machina!" she protested.

He gave his head a shake and replied, "Your eyes—what happened to them when you wanted to access the panels outside the door to the chamber I had been stored in?"

"They..." she began, blinking in surprise, then frowned faintly in confusion. "They sort of...spun really tightly, I guess? Like they were doing some weird re-focusing thing."

"Only Machina have that ability," he informed her. "Their eyes are able to re-focus to see mechanical and programming details no other race can, including the panels on the door to my storage chamber."

"But I had to stare at them for, like, a minute or longer before they appeared," she muttered.

"And no one else could see them," Eden pointed out dryly. "To us, you were apparently 'typing' on a blank wall." Hana added agreement to the sentiment as Gamahri nodded. The blond Turk then looked at Tusati again and asked, "And as much as that's all well and good, I think we need a better explanation than that."

He gave a faint sigh and nod. "For us, there were several races in the world who we dealt with, each teaching us different aspects of the world around us. For example, the Guado taught us all manner of botany and medicines, while we only learned to swim or play water sports because of the Hypello. We learned to fight from the Ronso, but not particularly through lessons, more through needing to defend ourselves from them, as they were more dangerous than the fiends we fought. When we began developing some rudimentary machines, a new race came to us, saying they were called the Machina. At the time, they seemed partially metal and partially flesh, in more than one form, ranging from a winged humanoid to something mostly human in appearance.

"By my time, about a thousand years after they introduced themselves to us, many of their forms had begun to take more of a humanoid look, though the winged branch seemed to have become more fiend-like and left society. They were still obviously largely metal, and sometimes had odd features a human, or even the other races, did not have, but apparently had a process of birth similar to an incubation chamber which was generally kept in one parent's body for a time for protection before the offspring needed to be moved to a larger chamber. Their eyes, with their spiral irises, were their most unique trait—those are focal lenses they used to find flaws in metals, circuits, and energy flows so the flaw is more easily tended to.

"As far as their lives went, they were academics of the highest degree and sought out knowledge, as well as teaching it. They loved interacting with humans, because we could randomly surprise them with new discoveries and creations. They taught us arithmetic, engineering, and programming, as well as a great deal about the natural environment. Learning and knowledge, and the creation of machines, was what their entire society was based on, and they absolutely loathed people who simply rejected learning and change. Most of the machines we commonly used and technologies we had, such as cybernetics, were originally developed and used by them, then taught to us, and we began perfecting them for our forms."

Tusati paused for a minute, thinking deeply with a faint frown, then returned his gaze to Karru. "There were those amongst the humans who felt it would be an incredible thing to create beings with the same abilities as the Machina had, but entirely in metal and able to be controlled by their creator. It was a fairly quiet movement at the time, but a few of the Machina had notably gone missing, and some individuals were attempting to create an artificial intelligence. If the Machina were created by Kaillyr, they had always been an independent race, but we have no way of knowing if a physical being created them instead. My thought is that, regardless of who did or did not create them, sentience defies slavery, which was what some of my associates wanted. One cannot have both sentience and absolute obedience."

"'A few' Machina had gone missing?" Eden asked dryly as the others stared at Tusati in something like horror.

"Well, more than a few," the man sighed. "Perhaps five percent of the their population? We searched for them, but never found them. It was—disturbing. I recall some of my associates who were unable to remain civil with one another saying they would each create their ideal machines, and slaughter the other. Posturing was one thing, but I believe the threat to have been real. Each was placed very highly within the cities each lived in, and it was rather obvious they had intended to create intelligent war machines."

"Didn't anyone try to stop them?" Hana asked, looking a little ill. Aeris nodded her agreement to the question.

"We did," Tusati agreed. "Three times, we raided their laboratories. Well, it was three times for one of them, but only twice for the other, as we never found his third laboratory. We never found the missing Machinas, and it seems the variant of them we knew no longer exists, so I would guess whoever took them worked to make them look far more human rather than less. Later, I believe those became the Al Bhed."

"The Bedore!" Koln gaped with wide eyes.

"What?" Hana asked him in puzzlement.

"Yuna's investigation into the actual history of the Besaid Temple revealed a so-called 'created' race known as the Bedore, who we _know_ are the ancestors of the Al Bhed. What if the Summoner Arb of that era didn't 'create' them, but found them and released them from wherever they had been being kept? That's why, when he was forced to 'create more of them' for the war, all he created were the 'fake' Bedore, not duplicates of the real thing. If he never actively ' _created_ ' the Bedore to _begin_ with, how in the world could he have reproduced them exactly? He was essentially back-engineering something he didn't fully understand!"

"...That actually makes a lot of sense..." Karru blinked in surprise. "And why would we have called all the semi-intelligent and intelligent machines which have been created 'machinas' if they weren't that? Except, the people who originally gave them the name had known about the Machinas, and if the Machinas vanished one day, anything which was 'similar' to them got labeled with the name."

"Wouldn't that mean the one actually making Machinas disappear in Tusati's time had been trying to _save_ them?" Eden blinked in sudden surprise. Everyone, even Tusati, gaped at him in surprise, but he turned back to the man to ask, "So, what were their lifespans like, and how often did they reproduce?"

For a moment, the black haired man blinked at him, then gave his head a small shake and replied, "Their lifespans were longer than ours only by virtue of replacement parts so their metallic elements did not strain their flesh ones. It was not extensively longer, however. In the world at large, they were dying far faster than they reproduced. It was a known trend that their population had been dropping gradually every year. Reproduction is difficult for a being which is a mix of flesh and metal, and many of their young were, as such, stillborn or their version of a miscarriage. No amount of study or precaution could repair the disparity."

"Right, so for them to have reappeared as the Bedore, someone had to've _helped_ them make the transition to a form which was far more prolific, and far more flesh than metal by extension," Eden nodded. "That's not something I see control freaks doing, so those people may not actually have been kidnapped or held against their will. And if the result led us to the Al Bhed, that's not really a bad thing. Where could the hidden lab have been for you to have never found it?"

"If we knew, we would have searched it," Tusati replied in a dry tone.

"City location?" the blond asked with a faint frown, not entirely sure why he wanted to know. Something was hovering at the edge of his mind, but it wasn't quite clear.

"It was a coastal city we knew as Vacaran Port. Would you mind terribly if I saw a world map?" With a whisper from Eden, Libby projected the current map of Spira, and was about to say something when the other man asked in horror, "What happened to Rubican, Navaria, and Gonnel? What is that odd mass where Navaria and Gonnel once were?"

The entire group stared at him in something like stunned shock for a minute before Hana asked slowly, "Are you saying that, since your time, _three whole continents_ have _vanished_ off the face of the planet?"

"Indeed," he agreed gravely. "Vacaran Port was on the northern coast of Gonnel, which would have been somewhere beneath the northern area of this new land mass."

"That new land mass is the continent of Gaia, where our people are living now," Aeris told him, still looking out of sorts. "But then, what happened to the other continents and the people living on them?"

"Maybe that's how all the other Machina, the ones who were part metal, died?" Karru offered sickly.

"It also explains why most of Spira has such shallow water..." Eden added, brow furrowed in thought. "A world which is about ninety percent water shouldn't have so much water that's so shallow, but if it had once had other continents, it would make a lot more sense."

"I think we may want to ask Kaillyr if he knows?" Koln asked, looking at Hana and Eden. The two traded looks, then sighed and nodded.

Both closed their eyes and reached with their minds for the entity native to Spira, and he answered them, causing their bodies to light up with the indication of his communication with them.

 _:What do you need, Hana, Eden?:_ he asked of them.

 _:A man named Tusati from thousands of years ago has said there had been three other continents on the planet. Is it true?:_ Hana asked, mentally speaking slowly as she tried to formulate her thoughts.

 _:It is,:_ he agreed.

 _:What happened to them, and to the people living on them?:_ Eden asked when Hana didn't move on to the next obvious question herself.

 _:Navaria apparently attempted to levitate the entire land mass and shattered it explosively in the process. There were no survivors and much damage to the remaining lands. Due to the damage, I spent some time not aware of what else was happening, and before I was able to do anything with the physical world, I had need to repair a hole they had unintentionally torn into the energies of this world—what you know as the Farplane Gate. In that time, the nearest continents to Navaria, Rubican and Gonnel, began—and ended—a war which resulted in one mass being shot out into space and the other being so badly damaged it was reduced to rubble.:_

 _:...I beg your pardon? What happened to Rubican and Gonnel?:_ Eden mentally blinked in confusion at Kaillyr.

The entity sighed faintly and explained, _:Gonnel attacked the largest city on Rubican with a 'death spell' in a man-made form, a weapon which caused everything to decay from the inside out. The effect was unintentionally powerful and began melting the land mass as it spread. Very soon after, it had spread to the whole of Rubican. When it also began spreading down the shore and into the water, Gonnel used the same technology which destroyed Navaria to shove it into space. One of their last acts before death was to launch as many high-powered explosives as they had at Gonnel, utterly destroying it nearly down to the level of the surrounding ocean floor. Again, there were no survivors of either, unless they had been on Wilderia and Djose then.:_

Hana's mind was stuck in a sense of horror, so Eden, thinking back on the 'ingredients' of the Philosopher's Stone, replied a little sickly, _:I see...Thank you for your help. It explains a lot.:_

With a farewell to them, Kaillyr left them to their own devices—which, of course, meant they (or Eden, since Hana was still processing what they'd been told) had to repeat all of that to the others. Tusati in particular was reeling from the information and chose to return to spirit form, but the others mostly just said it was time to head back to Besaid.

On the walk, they all fought in over-kill mode on every monster they came across, except for Hana, who just trailed after them absently.


	71. 67-In the Den of Woe

In the Den of Woe

Since the group needed time to absorb the new data they had on Spira's history, they decided to set out along the road to the port on the other side of the island around noon the next day. They had needed the morning to collect things like travel food and supplies, and the results of testing the metal fragment Libby and Eden had found. After eating their noon meal at Besaid Temple, they headed out along the path to the crossroads, then on to the coastal cliff road. It only took them a couple hours to reach the port, which really didn't have much beyond a few buildings for dock workers and sailors, a general store, and a small inn, tavern, and restaurant.

The port had been upgraded to a similar state as the one now at Besaid, but it was largely a shipping port rather than a civilian port. A few civilian ships stopped there normally to pick up or drop off passengers, but none were currently running, nor were most of the goods transports. Where the Besaid Port differed from Besaid itself was that its status as a literal port rather than a town meant it also kept several small airships, and they were able to procure transport to the next island, Kilika, on one of those.

By airship, the time to Kilika was reduced to about half an hour, and they got to Kilika, which was a full city and large port town, by supper time. After stopping at the Temple in Kilika to eat and put their things in rooms, the group decided to explore some of the town before resting for the night. It was a lot like Besaid, but less focused on beach-related tourism, more focused on its surrounding forests instead. While Besaid had been forested, it was nothing compared to Kilika's forests, and they were easily able to take two days just to explore it decently.

At one time, the path between Kilika and the Temple had been extended forest, but with the expansion of Kilika's town and port, there was only about fifteen minutes left of the walk on the cobbled forest path between the two. The only notable feature on the way was a bridge near the front entrance of the Temple, then the long, stone stair leading up to the Temple not far past the bridge. From off that path were many other branching paths into the forest, and there were also other entrances into the forest paths from other places in Kilika. In the Sundering, nearly the whole forest had been devastated, so its regrowth had meant a great deal to everyone in the area.

They also stopped by the area which had been attacked by the strange creatures, finding most of the same signs there as had been in Besaid. The greatest difference between the two locations was how the people in Kilika had actually cleaned up and properly disposed of the bodies. It wasn't a long investigation that time, just affirmation of what they already knew, with all the same signs. Because it was virtually identical to the attack at Besaid, the group moved on quickly, finding another airship in Kilika which would take them to Luca, the next stop on the journey. Their only real purpose there was to check the area which had been attacked, then head for the Mi'ihen Highroad on the way to both Djose Temple and the Moonflow.

Since Yuna's time, some areas of Mi'ihen which were near Luca had been reclaimed by the city, cutting down the length of the road and the number of ruins to be found along the path. It was largely an open plain dotted by stands of trees, ravines, and various collections of ruins, along with a number of machines which helped keep the fiend—now monster—population down in the area. The only creature of note which seemed to have bypassed the machines were some random Behemoths, clearly new residents in the region. Eden was displeased to see them, knowing how strong they were, but Aeris pointed out that Karru could use the experience, and with two very strong healers in the party—herself and Hana—it shouldn't be too dangerous for the younger girl.

As such, over the next two days, they fought their way through to the point where a path branched off towards the coastal cliff, and Koln commented, "That's Mushroom Rock Road, the place where the Den of Woe is. It's amazing how similar the place still is to Paine's memory."

The others paused, then Hana asked him, "Do you want to go look around the area or leave?"

He was quiet for a minute as he eyed the path, then said, "I want to see it—the Den of Woe—myself. It's not like it used to be, but...I would rather go, see for myself what she saw there, than just leave things as they are."

Several of the others traded looks, then Karru asked, "Hold on, will there be, like, really strong stuff to fight there? If it ever _was_ as bad as you said, probably everything's super-strong anyway, and the Behemoths were bad enough."

"With one exception, Karru," Eden said dryly, making her face him with a puzzled gaze. "We've been letting you fight one of the strongest monsters we had on Gaia—the planet, not the continent, though we probably have them there, too—largely on your own power. These ones are—conditioned, if you will—to living in a less harsh environment than they did on Gaia, so they aren't quite as strong, but they're still plenty strong, and stronger than everything else in the area. I don't think anything in the Den of Woe would be stronger, and all of us would actively fight if we went in there."

"It's true," Koln agreed. "I think the Behemoths we've fought on Mi'ihen have been marginally stronger than what was in the Den of Woe in Paine's memory, and the greatest danger to them when they went in had been one another, not the fiends. And Yuna, Paine, and Rikku ended up taking care of _that_ danger back in their day."

"Shall we go, then?" Sora asked, turning to start down the main path into the area.

"Hey, let me take the lead—you don't even _know_ where the entrance to the Den _is_!" Koln glared, running to catch up with the Wutain woman, then bypassing her. As the others followed, they chuckled, and even Gamahri gave an amused-sounding rumble.

As Koln led them through the winding paths and stone formations, it quickly became clear why it was called 'Mushroom Rock' Road, as the damage the cliffs had taken over time had given them a look oddly similar to a forest of giant mushrooms. It would have been a fantastic place to explore if it hadn't been for the monsters in the area, which included some which the Gaians had never seen records of before. The Spirans called them 'Sinspawn', the nominal name given to all bits which severed from Sin-level fiends and became monsters in their own regard. Rather than naming them after any other such fiends, it was easier to just use the name of the first fiend to create them. Since Sinspawn didn't qualify as 'fiends' or monsters, they wouldn't be found in any bestiary.

Which also left the question of what Sin-level fiend _had created_ them...

It was clear the area wasn't much frequented, though, as Koln led them deeper into the region. There were little to no signs of the passage of anything but monsters, and it was clear by some of the wear and tear which happened with time that no one was taking care of the place. Chances were that very few people had visited in the last thirty-five hundred years, since Yuna, Paine, and Rikku had gone there, and in a few sections, most or all of what had been a road was gone, causing them to have to detour into the pockets and cubbyholes hidden all throughout the area. Most damaged roads could be bypassed through those odd caves, but at a few, Eden just put his hands together and fixed the road.

Suddenly, Koln stopped and looked down at a rock they were just passing, then called, "Eden, is this what I think it is?"

When the blond Turk joined him and looked at the rock, Libby gave a small 'eep' and gasped, "Those things were here!"

"Looks like it," Eden agreed, staring at the scratches on the rock. The others joined them to look at the marks, then warily began examining their surroundings, looking for other traces of them.

And they found traces. A lot of them. Leading in the same direction they were going, towards the Den of Woe.

"...So...Do you think they've already left?" Koln asked quietly as he stopped at the door, which had never shut again once Yuna, Paine, and Rikku had opened it up so long ago.

Eden's brow furrowed, but Gamahri tapped his shoulder, getting his attention, then pointed to a section of marks not far from the entrance. Crouching to examine the marks, it quickly became clear to him two things, which he told to the others, "It looks like this is probably the largest number to date to have come ashore, and that they've passed through twice, once in each direction. Since I didn't see them come from or detour to any other path, and the first place we saw signs of them was at the rock Koln noted marks on, it's pretty safe to say they _came_ from here and have already returned to it."

"How in the world did they get into a _cave_?" Hana asked in confusion, echoed by Karru, Aeris, and Koln.

"The place may be very close to Koln's memory of it from Paine, but that also doesn't mean it's all the same, either," Eden shrugged.

When the others looked puzzled, Sora explained, "While the cave may have been completely sealed long ago, at some point between then and now, it could very well have been damaged, a hole leading directly to the ocean in it. Perhaps even a large portion of the cave is now submerged."

The others blinked, but Eden rose and said, "Let's check the Den, but have your weapons ready, just in case. We can't be too careful, and for all we know, they've appropriated the place as their home base or something."

As he drew his sword, the others also began drawing their weapons, and they cautiously proceeded, Gamahri, whose feet were bare, being especially careful of where he stepped. Admittedly, they thought at first that the place was deserted, until they heard a scream and a roar from deeper inside the cave. The others traded shocked, worried looks, then ran for the exit to the path they were on.

FoW

When they reached the chamber at the end of the path, no one and nothing was there, but there were two other paths off it. The room showed passage of the creatures, going down both other paths, but the one to the right of their entrance was where the noise came from. As the others headed in that direction, Hana suddenly stopped as she felt dizzy and ill—and she _felt_ something reach into her mind. The others didn't notice either the effect or her reaction, a reaction which caused her to drop to her knees, cutting them on the sharp marks on the floor—and which triggered the memory of what Aunt Yuna had told her as the pain returned some awareness to her.

She drew in a sharp breath as she realized the Den of Woe had once again become that sort of place. With the new rules Spira was operating by, how could that even be possible? Reaching instinctively for Kaillyr, she asked him urgently, _:What's causing this—effect—in the Den of Woe again? What's invading our minds?:_

There was a momentary silence, then Kaillyr replied, _:Oh, that is not good. There is a powerful fiend there, one which has rather uncertain origins. Its nature I do not know...While it seems to be a fiend 'like' Sin, it also...is not? Or perhaps...Perhaps the Den itself has become the fiend's body...:_ He paused as Hana felt a sense of horror by what they had walked into. Her mind jumped to the Sinspawn they had fought on the way and realized they should have known, just by that, and braced themselves better.

A moment later, he went on, _:Hana, your sense of self is strong, and that is your greatest strength. It is how you resisted the fiend's manipulation, what kept you sane. The only possible option is to send it, and you will not be able to rely on the others to assist you. At this moment, if the pain of your current injuries assists you in retaining your own mind, keep them until you have done as needed—I am unable to keep your mind for you, beyond a shield which I have woven around your mind. It will not keep for long, so you must hurry, also to spare your companions the suffering of that place.:_

When he left her mind, she blinked open her eyes and winced at the pain in her knees. Knowing the dire words were true, Hana rose, hissing a pained breath as her cut knees ached with sharp, jabbing pains. She felt a little light-headed, but a look down assured her she wasn't losing much blood, so she ran down the path after the rest of her companions. When she reached the next chamber, equally as large as the one they had already passed through and with a downward sloping floor, she had to pause to stare in horror at what she saw, at what her companions had devolved into.

Sora and Eden were fighting each other with a ferocity which left her wondering how either had survived even a few minutes, and Libby had apparently vanished.

Karru had attacked Aeris (she was so thankful the girl hadn't attacked someone more likely to kill her!), who had created a shield around herself and was apparently quite happily growing mass numbers of plants. ( _Wait, what?_ her mind couldn't help but insert, the effect was so out of place.)

Koln and Gamahri had also started fighting one another, but theirs looked more like male posturing than an out-and-out desire to kill one another.

Also in the room were three other people she'd never seen before, one of them dead and the other two, both obviously magic users, had begun casting damaging spells at one another, and everyone _else_ in the room.

There were also many bodies of those creatures laying around, often in pairs who had obviously ended one another's lives.

After a pause to assess the mess, Hana noted another path on the far wall, at least ten feet lower than where she stood, so worked her way around the wall of the room to it, carefully paying only enough attention to her surroundings to dodge something heading her way, usually from the two magic users. No one paid any attention to her, so she got to the path and began the trek down the increasingly dark and extremely moist tunnel—she'd have thought the walls were sweating, it was so moist. Which was odd, because this tunnel was oddly frigid. It was also the only place so far where she hadn't seen signs of the passage of those creatures.

At the bottom, she came to a chamber which dropped out into ocean water with a large hole to the far side which was obviously an entry point for said water. In the air in the middle of the chamber was a mass of pyreflies swirling around something which looked a lot like...a person in insubstantial (or spirit) form? The mass of pyreflies only gave off barely enough light to see, but not to make out many details.

A scream of agony sounded from above, making her look up to see a woman somehow fixed to the ceiling as a stone spike slowly pushed its way through her body. Hana felt ill as she realized the woman's spine had been severed, and the agony the woman had to be in. Combined with the chill and the blood loss—it wasn't likely she would live.

The least Hana could do was free her from the nightmare and the pain (or as much of it as she could) before she died.

Drawing in a deep breath as her determination firmed, Hana held her staff forward and closed her eyes, focusing all her will and energy on the sending dance, to the near-complete exclusion of all else. Kaillyr had said defeating _this_ fiend wasn't about _fighting_ , it was about _sending_. As she danced, she wondered if the fiend which had formed here had been created by a betrayed soul, or by many of them, hence its location—what had taken place in the Den of Woe, and later at Mushroom Rock Road, was common knowledge. As such, it was the kind of place associated with betrayal in people's minds, so was likely to attract exactly that.

With that idea in mind, as she danced, she said with only the guidance of her own instinct, in what she'd thought was a quiet voice, "More than anyone else, the betrayed deserve to rest, to find the peace they couldn't in life. Your pain...let it end...Let yourselves please move forward so you can find something better." The feeling in her voice caused all sound to cease (except some pained whimpering from the woman). "Please release the others to their own fates, and take a path of your own."

Something keened nearby as she danced, and she felt a sensation like something about to attack her. If she hadn't been training so long with Eden and other very powerful people, she could never have both dodged it and kept dancing without breaking even a step. As it was, she had no idea who (or what) had attacked her, but it hadn't been the form in the middle of the room, because it had come from behind her. The attacker sailed off the edge of the cliff, so she just kept dancing, vaguely hearing 'it' hit the water below.

"Please move forward. Please let your suffering end, rather than staying here in eternal agony," she whispered, or thought she whispered, again, still dancing the sending dance.

A monstrous roar sounded, much like they had first heard upon entering the cave, then a second was pained in sound, then finally, a peculiar keening, like something was crying, took form and eventually trailed off to fall silent. She kept dancing, still feeling the weight and pressure of the fiend on her mind—until finally, something snapped and the sensation stopped abruptly.

Hana had no time to realize it was over before salt water hit her and she blacked out.

FoW

Everyone suddenly felt a snapping sensation as their eyes cleared. They blinked in shock—then a wave of salt water washed through the room, and only the fact that they were running into tree branches and thick, trailing vines kept them from drowning or being swept away to who knew where. It didn't take long for the water to fall still or drain enough from the room for them to note a section of the cavern floor above the water line near the entrance to the path they had come in from, but three quarters of the room was still submerged. Most, but not all, of the dead bodies in the room had washed away, leaving only three of the creatures (that they could see, anyway—in the dense foliage, they could have missed some) and the one dead human. The others were damaged somewhat, except for Karru and Aeris, but still alive and mostly whole.

"So, have you all come back to your senses now?" Aeris asked in a cheerful-sounding voice from wherever she had perched.

When uncertain agreement came back from the others, she dropped down into the water and swam to the dry land to climb onto it and work on ringing out her hair and clothes. The rest of the group followed suit tentatively, all of them noting how long it was taking Libby to reach them from the far side of the room, but it was Karru who, after a minute of peering around, asked fearfully, "Where's Hana?"

The others also looked around—then focused on the water as a large bubble rose from it. When the bubble cleared the water enough for them to see what was in it, they all gaped at Hana's unconscious form, turned on its side. There was blood on her knees and water was draining from her mouth as she struggled to breathe, but she otherwise looked unharmed. As someone else rose from the water, they all stared at the woman in surprise—she was floating above the surface and directing the bubble to them, and hadn't caused a ripple in the water as she had emerged.

She had the green, spiral-iris eyes and blond hair of the Al Bhed, her hair in a high ponytail with flyaway bangs, and she dressed in a long, dark purple and blue shirt with green pants partially covered by brown leather chaps and a green device like a tunic over her usual clothes. There was also a pair of goggles around her neck. As Eden met her eyes, he suddenly had the feeling she was a fayth, one who looked very sad just then. The two magic users who had been in the chamber before they had arrived gasped, "Liarin!" For a moment, the woman paused to look at them, then sighed and directed the bubble with Hana in it to the others. Koln and Karru seized the Summoner as soon as the bubble popped, immediately turning her over to pound on her back and force more water from her lungs.

"You're...a fayth now, aren't you?" Eden asked the woman, who turned to face him.

Her eyes moved immediately to his earring, then she sighed and agreed, "I am now. She...I know what she did was to save you, and to save me, and to try to end this horror. The trap she was in...I could only do one thing if I wanted to save the only person besides Summoner Yuna to be immune to this place. So, for that, and because I still have things I want to do, I wanted to live."

"You don't seem very happy, though, especially for an Al Bhed," the blond frowned at Liarin.

The fayth gave him a vaguely amused look, then created another bubble around the body of the human—obviously also an Al Bhed man—which had gotten stuck on the wall above where the lower path had been. "What pains me is his death...my brother..." The bubble returned to the two magic users, who weren't Al Bhed, clearly leaving his body in their care. To them, she addressed, "Please take him home to be with family, and tell them I'm a fayth now, and an Aeon called Bismarck." When both nodded, tears in their eyes, she turned back to Eden. "Her name?"

His lips quirked faintly as he replied, "Hana, one of Yuna's descendants."

For the first time, Liarin managed an honest smile. "Such irony."

"Where's your anchor?" he suddenly asked warily.

"In the chamber deep below this one," she replied.

Eden nodded and turned back to Koln, Karru, and Hana, waiting patiently until Hana finally started coughing properly and woke enough to see the two of them above her. Once she had fallen into sleep again, that time breathing more easily, Aeris healed her—and everyone else's—injuries, and Gamahri silently collected Hana to carry her out. Turning back to the water as Liarin followed the others, still floating above whatever surface was below her, Eden switched off one of his Materia to use Underwater.

"What are you doing, Eden?" Koln asked him, noticing how he wasn't following the others out.

"I'm going to have a look at the anchor, then catch up to you." Koln nodded and headed out, so he turned to look at Libby. "Uh, Libby, how waterproof are you?" he asked her as she finally climbed out of the water.

"Apparently, completely," she replied, shaking herself off like a dog.

"Do you want to come take a picture of the anchor or go with the others?" he asked, giving her wet head a pat. "I'm glad you're okay," he added more quietly and with feeling.

She blinked up at him, then wiggled her ears and said, "I'll go with you, as long as I don't have to swim it myself this time."

He chuckled faintly and lifted her onto his shoulder, where she clung tightly as he dove into the water and swam down to the floor below. With the weight of his auto-mail leg, it was easy to walk along the floor of the path out of the chamber, and into the large one where the anchor would be. Looking around, he realized how dark it was there, and wondered how he could get light to see the walls with. A sudden thought had him call to Alexander, asking him mentally to please light up the underwater chamber they were in, and when the Summon appeared, light blazed like daylight in all directions.

Taking another look around allowed Eden to see something on the ceiling above, in roughly the middle of the room, so he gave a faint sigh and forcibly propelled himself upward, fighting the drag on his leg. It hadn't been like this on Gaia, so what was the difference? After a pause, he wondered if he should check on the difference in gravity, since he knew Gaia's had been less than his own homeworld's. Either way, he managed to get up to the anchor to see it closely enough to get a clear look at it, and Libby nodded against his cheek to let him know she had a copy.

There was a blood stain in the middle of it, right around where the large patch of scarring on 'her' bare back was.

Quickly, he returned to the section of land at the path into the chamber, and walked through the tunnel again before swimming back to the surface to climb onto land by the other exit. From there, he retraced his steps to the entrance, and began working his way back through Mushroom Rock Road.


	72. 68-Aftermath of Woe

Aftermath of Woe

Eden caught up to the rest of the group about five minutes after leaving the Den of Woe, when they were about halfway back to Mi'ihen. Liarin had vanished, but her two living companions, who carried her brother's body, were traveling with them.

"The nearest place we can rest from here is Djose Temple," Koln told him as the blond fell in with him. "It's a ways ahead, maybe half an hour. Longer if we have to fight. We haven't seen any Basilisks yet, so I'm quite glad, and I hope Djose will stay clear of them."

"I think Sora and I can take care of anything we have to fight, with some help from Aeris," Eden replied.

"How can you just not be affected by what happened?" Koln suddenly yelled at him.

"The fuck?" Eden glared. "You think I'm not _affected_? What planet are _you_ from? I'm telling you—I handle things by _breaking stuff_ when I'm mad, and all SOLDIERs basically have the same trait. _Of course_ I'm going to vent by fighting monsters, you moron! Now shut up before you put your foot so far down your throat you choke on it!"

"Eden, stop yelling and come kill these monsters, please," Aeris called from near the front of the line, making Eden turn to look—to see two each of two different monsters which both looked a lot like predator dinosaurs with stone-like skins. One had a much longer neck than the other and had blue-gray skin with yellow-ish patches, called a Lamashtu, and the other was largely just brown, called a Voivre.

He obeyed her demand, joining Sora to kill them, and several other groups of monsters, on the path to Djose Temple, including one Basilisk. The walk was otherwise silent, and the Priests asked no questions as they led the group to rooms in the Temple so they could rest. At the time, no one particularly noticed what the Temple looked like, but Eden vaguely noted he'd have thought it was an Alexander from a distance. During the night, the Priests also preserved and prepared the body they had brought with them for transport while the travelers were all trying to rest and recover from what had happened.

In the early morning hours, Eden finally gave up trying to sleep with a sigh, tapping Libby on the head as he sat up. She pushed herself up and sat (or more like crouched on her haunches) waiting for whatever he wanted to ask her, one ear standing nearly upright and the other down as it twitched almost absently. The blond had realized she was processing something anytime she had a twitching ear, and suddenly had the urge to ask, "Were you affected by the same thing we were in there?"

She tipped her head to the side and said, "I think so, but I have no way to fight or attack anything, so I hid in the plants Aeris started growing instead."

Eden had to smile faintly at that. "I'm suddenly really, really thankful you're a non-combatant, Libby. I'm pretty sure that's the only thing that kept you alive back there."

"I'd have liked to be able to help you, though," the little robot answered.

He patted her head and told her, "You _do_ help me. A lot more than I think you realize." She blinked at him, but he changed the subject to say, "But, Librarian, I need you to show me the copies you took of those creatures—Angeal's experience with them and the copy you have of their looks."

"Okay!" she agreed happily, and projected the copy she'd taken of Angeal's memory Sphere.

As it began playing, Eden said, "Pause it, please." The image froze as the SOLDIERs were arriving at the scene, so he called for both Vanya and Tusati. When both appeared, looking puzzled, he pointed at Libby's projection and said, "This is actually what we were sent on the Pilgrimage for. Because of what it looks like we're dealing with, I thought you two might be able to shed some light on the attackers here, those shelled frog-ish things. After this scenario, Libby has a still image you'll be able to examine more closely of them."

"That would be quite useful, then," Tusati agreed.

"It already doesn't look very good, though. Their—claws, I suppose—aren't right from the start," Vanya assessed, peering at the image as closely as she could.

"Thanks. You can play it now, Libby. Thanks for waiting," he told the robot.

"Of course," she agreed, and the scenario began playing again. When it finished, she pulled up the still image of the single one, and Eden showed them how they could turn the image to see it from other angles.

As Tusati's brow furrowed at the image, Vanya asked, "This is a little aside from why you called for us, Eden, but how did that man grow wings?"

"That would normally be one of the side-effects, or possible side-effects, of having absorbed genetic material from a planetary entity," Tusati surprised everyone by answering, his voice absent and his mind clearly more on the image in front of him.

"But planetary entities are spirits, so they don't _have_ 'genetic material' to _give_ ," Vanya's brow furrowed.

"In this case, the story is a little more complicated, but it amounts—roughly—to what Tusati said," Eden cut in before Tusati could answer. "Actually, though, most planetary entities have a form which is a physical amalgamation of the genetic data generated by their world, what we call an 'Omega'. The Omega houses both the genetic data and the spirit essence of the entity and takes it all to another world to start over with—Minerva's Omega landing here was what triggered the mass fiend attack on Erva Eyja." He then told them about Jenova and the SOLDIER program, and how Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth were different from the others—essentially making them Jenova's 'children' who Minerva 'adopted'.

By the time he'd finished talking, even Tusati had looked up at him in shocked surprise, and the man asked, "How does such a being become destructive? By nature, they are creators, not destroyers."

"But they're also sentient, and sentience opens the door for insanity. It's likely Jenova was three quarters insane and defending herself by the time she got there, because frankly, her Omega body was shockingly small compared to Minerva's Omega body," Eden shrugged. "Back to the image..."

The two blinked, then nodded and turned their gazes back to it, examining it in minute detail. As they worked, the two muttered to each other, a discussion which quickly lost him, even as it reminded him very much of Winry. The thought made him smile faintly and just let them do their thing until they were ready to talk with him.

After awhile, while they were still working, Vanya asked, "By the way...Eden, it's rather obvious it's the middle of the night, so why are you doing this rather than sleeping?"

"I can't sleep," he sighed faintly.

"Why is that?" she asked, her tone worried—but she showed she was still actively working on the image when she pointed at something to draw Tusati's eye to it.

The blond leaned back and stared up at the ceiling, bracing his hands behind him on the bed so he could lean on them. "We went to the Den of Woe."

"The what?" Tusati asked, glancing up momentarily from the thing he was examining, whatever Vanya had pointed to.

"A place which had been sealed after merely being present there had caused many people to randomly turn on one another," Vanya told him. "The first time people had entered it in—likely about three hundred years—only four people survived, and they would have been executed as traitors if they hadn't realized and escaped. I was under the impression that Yuna fixed that thirty-five hundred years ago, though."

"She did," Eden agreed. "I don't know what all happened, but our minds were taken over by something powerful—apparently only Hana, and maybe Aeris, were immune to it. Or Aeris' basic nature just dictated she would do nothing beyond growing plants, but she didn't attack anyone, that I could tell. I'll hazard a guess and say that sometime between when Yuna cleaned it up and when we got there, it gained a resident Sin-level fiend—we'd been fighting Sinspawn on the way there. We attacked one another, and if Hana hadn't just gotten a new Aeon, she'd have died in there, trying to save _us_...All of us who were _too weak_ to save ourselves..."

The pained tone in his voice made both Vanya and Tusati straighten to stare at him, then the pair traded looks. It was Tusati who said, "Eden, I may not know what you mean by a 'Sin-level fiend', but it seems obvious the entity in question is very powerful. Perhaps akin to a Sacred Beast, or perhaps stronger still. Even a Sacred Beast with the correct skill set could force allies to attack one another, and that is _never_ a pleasant experience. I daresay you hold little, or no, personal blame for what took place there."

After a silence, the younger blond released a small, frustrated sigh and sat forward to lean his elbows on his knees and drop his head into his hands. "Everyone else was taken over, but somehow, _Hana was immune_. The only possible way she could have been is if her mind is— _way_ stronger than anyone ever realized. And I shouldn't have been taken over so completely unless _my own mind_ is _a lot_ more fragile than I ever realized. What good is being a genius if it deserts you when you need it the most?" He was clearly both frustrated and pained, his turmoil obvious to them.

Tusati released an amused huff, making Vanya blink at him and Eden look up with a faintly moist glare. The black haired man said, "Well, if you felt genius and mental strength were one and the same, you have _always_ been operating on a fallacy of logic. Knowledge is useless without wisdom, and wisdom is the root of mental strength. However, you seem to have misinterpreted your own situation and your own strength."

With a startled blink, the blond asked tentatively, "What do you mean?"

Meeting his gaze evenly, the older man told him bluntly, "No matter how strong-willed a person may be, their strength must eventually falter, and Eden, I am no fool. Your mind has recently been taxed to its limit _twice_ in a very, very short span of time, both over the _same_ heart-rending issue." He paused and gave his head a small shake. "You showed little adverse effect to meeting me—however, it was obvious as we three spoke that you were on the verge of losing your self-control. You _wished_ to react, but were able to hold yourself back, only because I had _willingly_ placed myself in this state. With the strain to your own mental state, could you _honestly_ tell me you were _prepared_ to defend your mind against attack from such a being as powerful as the one you faced in the Den of Woe?"

When Eden blinked several times, a thoughtful Vanya added, "Yes, I noticed it, too. The wound is so raw and deep to you, Eden, that you basically can't _not_ react, in some way, to a similar situation, and with myself and Tusati both coming into your life so soon after one another, you hadn't even fully recovered by the second. It's a lot like stretching an elastic band, and keeping it stretched, then applying a sharp blade to it—and with how far stretched it was, it would, by default, snap. That's what happened to your mind, and that _isn't_ a weakness on your part, Eden. The only thing you were guilty of is meeting the last straw before you were _ready_ to meet it."

After a pause, Eden dropped his head into his hands again, but that time was more settled, deep in thought rather than heading towards depression. As much as he knew the words they had told him, processing and interpreting them was very difficult—the experience in the Den of Woe was too powerful, too recent.

Some minutes later, Vanya said, "We'll be working on this for hours, so you can do something else for awhile, Eden. Get some rest, maybe?"

He snorted and pushed himself to his feet, pulling on his shirt and pants, then slipping on his shoes (the Temple floors were _always_ so _frigid_ ). "That's not happening tonight," he said, absently grabbing his earring from the bedside table and slipping it on. "I'll leave you and Libby here to work, then." With those parting words, he stepped out of the room to wander the Temple absently, still trying to process the advice, of a sort, they had given him.

 _~FoW~_

"Eden?" a tired voice asked from behind him some time later, as he absently wandered down one of the main halls of the Temple. Turning, the blond saw Hana standing at the corner of the nearest crossing hall, a deep blue-green, thick, fluffy robe wrapped tightly around her. She had her clothes on under it, but she was apparently very cold, shivering as she was, even with the extra, thick layer of warmth the robe provided. What she _didn't_ have was her staff, or her usual shoes, for that matter—she was wearing fuzzy slippers.

"Should you even be up after you nearly drowned?" he asked her worriedly, making his way over to her to rub her arms, generating some extra warmth.

She shook her head slowly, not in denial, but more like she was confused and having trouble processing. "Where is this?"

"Djose Temple," he told her, gaze worried. "If you're so cold, you should be curled up in a warm bed. Wasn't Karru watching over you?"

"She...fell asleep. And she needed it. Ever since I woke, though...I can't..." She paused for a long moment, then looked up at him with a helpless look in her eyes which he had never seen in them before. He had, however, seen it on others, on people who had just found out what real horror and suffering were. "I'm not cold," she finally went on. "Not physically. That's why this isn't helping. I don't...know what to...do or think...or even what to _feel_..."

His gaze was sad as eyed her for a long minute. "I honestly don't remember much of what happened in there. I just know...I was too weak to help you then, so...Maybe if you tell me what you experienced, I can help you now?"

She blinked slowly, repeating softly, "Weak...?" Then, she shook her head. "You weren't weak, no more than anyone else, like Koln, and if he's strong-willed enough to handle Paine's memories, he's not weak. My...my mind resisted, and I fell and cut my knees on the marks those creatures had left behind. The pain and help from Kaillyr was mostly what kept me lucid, and even Kaillyr could only protect my mind for so long." Hana looked away, carefully stepping in the direction of the Temple doors, which they weren't far from at that time. As he fell in with her and they slowly made their way to the doors, she told him about making her way down to the final chamber and seeing the woman on the ceiling, and sending the core of the fiend which had appropriated the Den as its 'body'.

As she had talked, they had stepped out into the dawn light and surrounding fog, wandering down the fairly short road to the coastal cliff. On the way, she had finished telling him everything about the experience, and finished with, "I had wanted to ease the woman's pain before she died, but...Where the water came from, I don't know, and it meant I couldn't help her at all, even though she had suffered so much..."

"Hana...she's a fayth..." he told her quietly as they walked slowly down the last stretch of road towards the coast.

"You have _another_ one?" she asked in surprise.

"No, she's _yours_ ," the blond replied with faint amusement. "Liarin, an Al Bhed woman. She took a form she called Bismarck, but we haven't seen it yet, and she created a bubble around you to keep you alive and return you to us. Her brother died in there, but their other two friends survived."

"But—I don't—that's not—I don't _deserve_ an Aeon after not even being able to—" Hana began, immediately feeling, and looking, alarmed.

" _Send_ a Sin-level fiend?" Eden cut in dryly, making her pause and stare. "Hana, have you _ever_ met or heard of a _Sin-level_ fiend which could actually be _sent_ , or did they all have to be _destroyed_?" The sixteen-year-old's eyes widened. "Even if it was at Kaillyr's advice, _you_ still managed to send something so powerful it shouldn't have been able to have been sent. It's _not_ your fault the fiend dissolving caused a flood and knocked you unconscious. _I_ have a lot more to be worried about when I was too weak to resist its mind control. But, I think Liarin might like it if you called her."

The whole time, they had kept walking, ignoring the frigid air around them, and the dampness of the fog. When they actively looked forward again, they were beneath one of the few remaining overhangs at the coastal cliff which had once nearly completely covered Djose Highroad. Over time, most of the covering sections had broken off and either been washed into the ocean or been carted away so they weren't blocking the road, which also left said road open to the elements. By extension, some parts of the road had crumbled over time, and had been replaced with bridges—the place where they were currently was one of the few which was still in its natural state from back when Yuna had made her first journey thirty-five hundred years ago.

After a silence as they stopped to stare out at the ocean waves, Hana gave a small nod and closed her eyes for a moment. Liarin—and Auron as well—appeared in front of the pair as Hana opened her eyes again. Auron's gaze immediately moved to the woman beside him, who blinked at him in surprise before looking at Hana questioningly.

"Auron, meet Liarin, who has apparently become my second Aeon," she told the man, who raised a brow. Hana then went on to Liarin, "And Liarin, meet Auron, who is also an Odin. Eden told me you called your Aeon form Bismarck?"

"How is an Al Bhed a fayth or an Aeon to begin with?" Auron asked curiously. "I have never heard of one becoming such."

Shaking her head as Liarin glared at the man, Hana replied, "This is the first time it's happened. But, it should always have been possible, and I think the only reason it didn't is because it's very rare for anyone with a child-like mentality to become a fayth—most don't believe in anything enough to be able to. Most of the Al Bhed who _could_ have become fayth or Aeons also weren't normally in situations where they would become one. But Liarin is obviously proof they can. I've just never heard of 'Bismarck' before, so I'm curious about what it _is_. And how you apparently managed to become one with the state you were in and the sudden flood." At the last two points, she was looking at the blond woman.

Giving her head a shake, Liarin replied with a faintly sad sigh, "Hana, it's _exactly because of_ the flood that I became Bismarck, and _you_ were the one who gave me the strength to cross that line. As for what it _is_...There are those massive sharks near the surface in a lot of areas which just eat plankton from in the water—they're called whale sharks. Bismarck is kind of similar to them, but different as well, and it can operate in both water and air, with the ability to control water and weather. I'm not sure how extensive the ability is, but my battle attacks are either a Tidal Wave or a Bolt Storm. Apparently, I have applications outside battle, though." With the words, she pointed up, and the fog cleared in minutes as early morning sun shone down on them.

The other three all looked up (as much as they could around the stone cover over them) in amazement, then looked at her again as Hana asked, "May I see your Aeon form?"

With a nod, the Al Bhed woman glowed brightly and shifted—to a very large form which, by default, moved it outside the space beneath the overhang. When the light cleared, they were looking at a whale large enough to have swallowed a man whole had it been inclined to, but its teeth were more similar to baleen than to usual shark teeth. As a shark, it was purely aquatic and had no need to breathe air, but this one was obviously as at home in air as it was in water. By size alone, it was impressive—larger than Bahamut—but it wasn't as large as Sin-level fiends tended to be.

What made it most unique was how it seemed to have a back covered in feathers, and its two—very large—front flippers looked more like giant, feathered wings than they did like typical flippers. From about mid-back down, there were crystalline spikes down its spine to its tail. While its body seemed to be colored in deep blue, its feathers were white and blue in a pattern resembling clouds in the sky, and the crystalline spikes were bright yellow. When they focused on the spikes (a very hard thing to do from their current positions with the way Bismarck seemed to undulate in the air), they could vaguely see what looked like sparks traveling from one crystal tip to the next and back again.

"I...am honored to have an Aeon like you, Liarin...Bismarck," Hana breathed reverently after a few minutes of staring in awe at her new Aeon. An oddly cheerful-sounding, haunting whale call was the reply she got, so she asked Eden absently, "You wouldn't happen to know what her anchor looks like, would you, Eden?"

"Libby took a photo of it, so you can have a look when we go back inside," he offered.

She nodded and turned to face him suddenly. "Have you ever been in a situation like that before?" she asked, gaze sad.

"I don't know about the being mind-controlled part, but I have a vague memory of Cloud and me going to an old, abandoned mansion which was infested by monsters, and one of the types _did_ actually cause us to attack one another, or to try to. But I'm not sure that's what you're talking about," he told her, brow quirked a bit.

Shaking her head, Hana asked, "What reason would a fiend have to torture someone to death the way that one did to Liarin?" Auron's eyes widened as Liarin landed beside him, back in her human fayth form.

"I'm pretty sure it did that because it couldn't control me," the blond woman told her new Summoner bluntly. "Effectively, in its mind, that was my 'punishment' for not being a 'good little killing puppet'." Hana stared at her in horror, then looked at Eden, who just nodded sadly. Finally, she looked to Auron, who sighed and inclined his head, agreeing with the reason.

Apparently, the response was too much for Hana to process, so she asked Eden, "Can I have a look at her anchor, then?"

"Yeah," he agreed, gaze wryly amused. "Come on, then."

The blond Turk-Summoner led the group back to the Temple. Auron killed a few monsters on the way, and they vaguely noted Liarin's two living companions leaving as she gave them a wave and they gave her sad nods in reply. At Eden's room, Vanya and Tusati were still working, so he asked Libby if she could project both images at once without having them in the same space. She could, so they were able to examine the Aeon anchor for Bismarck without interrupting the work the two 'scientists' were doing, and they were somewhat surprised by how clear the image was, even through the water which had been between Libby and it.

Liarin was depicted face-down (ponytail intact) on a background which had a lower half resembling ocean and an upper half resembling sky with rainclouds, lightning, sun, and wind all somehow depicted in it. Her left hand was held forward and passed through the background image without re-emerging, and while her human aspect wore her pants, chaps, and boots, her back was clearly bare. Rather, the 'scarring' the hole in her body would have left behind was visible, but there was no cloth covering her top half, that anyone could tell. The effect of the 'blood marks' also made Eden rethink the idea that they had somehow been left behind—it was more likely they were actually part of the base image.

Liarin's right arm in the anchor image appeared to be one of Bismarck's feathered fin-wings, and some of that feathering was also visible on her upper back and in her hair, both on the right side of her body. From the point where the top of the large, circular scar was, there were small, yellow, crystalline spikes visible, one for each of her vertebrae in the nearly five-inch-diameter scar. Below the scar, her lower back shifted and curved into the whale's tail, which followed a smooth line which took it off to the right side of her body, like with the wing her arm had become, and the yellow spikes and some feathering also trailed down it.

Even Libby, Vanya, and Tusati took a few minutes to be impressed before they returned to their work.


	73. 69-Half-way

Half-way

The morning meal at their table in the Temple's cafeteria was very quiet. The two who had been with Liarin and her brother had already left, leaving only Hana and her Guardians—and, of course, the resident Priests. Back in Yuna's time, no one had lived there, but now, it acted a great deal like a wayfarer's tavern or a short-term traveler's hostel. Over-all, the particular shift in Djose Temple to lived-in and welcoming was a beneficial one for everyone involved.

As they were finishing the meal and Koln was rising, clearly with the intent to leave, Hana said, "Koln, sit back down. We need to discuss what happened yesterday."

"Besides the obvious fact that _none_ of us were there to protect you, meaning we _all_ failed as your Guardians, what is there to discuss?" he asked bitterly.

The younger girl sighed and said, "You and Eden are both reacting to that fact as though it's the defining factor of the whole Pilgrimage. I would guess Sora and Gamahri, and even Karru, all feel the same, yes?" When she looked at the three, Sora looked away guiltily, Gamahri huffed, but gave a small nod, and Karru looked like she would cry at any moment. "This is why we need to discuss this, because _you've_ all missed something about what happened, and I think _that's_ much more defining than what you seem to be seeing as my Guardians. So please, sit down, Koln, and let's talk about this."

"If it's any comfort, Koln, she already kinda told me off once today for thinking that way," Eden offered the other man in a wry tone.

After a long silence, the older man sighed faintly and lowered himself back into his seat. "Fine. What is there you need to say?"

"I don't know that Eden realized what I meant earlier when I told him about my discussion with Kaillyr in there," Hana said softly, and when the others saw Eden's gaze become puzzled, they all focused on the sixteen-year-old, who also noted the blond's expression. "I didn't think so. In other words, to put this into perspective...Kaillyr was shielding my mind for most of it, but that shielding was _temporary at best_ , and he _told me that himself_. In other words, that fiend was _so powerful_ it could _even overpower Kaillyr_." She paused as the others started blinking in surprise. " _None_ of you are _weak_ , not in mind, and not in body.

"The trap we walked into was _worse_ than the one Paine walked into, and which she, Aunt Yuna, and Aunt Rikku later walked into together, because they could still challenge it as they normally would have. The only difference is that Paine _remembered_ what happened, but apparently none of you did?" When she got back shakes of the head, she said, "I'm the only one who has the memory, then. Would you like to know what I actually _saw_ you doing in there?"

"We were fighting," Gamahri replied bluntly, his voice like flint. "One another, not enemies. The dishonor of attacking allies..." Even though he spoke so coldly, he had to wrinkle his nose and rub the bridge of it for a moment.

"I'd say that if you and Koln _didn't_ look more like you were just playing around, like male posturing," she answered him dryly. That made all the others gape at her. "I'm serious—you _really_ looked like you were just sparring and showing off, not actually trying to kill one another. I can't speak for Liarin's two surviving friends, but the two of you, while you may have harmed one another, it was minor damage, so even when you were possessed, you _couldn't_ be made to _really try_ to kill one another." Both looked thoughtful as they looked away from her.

"What about me, then?" Sora asked. "I obviously had not looked so—genial, or you would have included me in your statement. And Eden, and Karru, and Aeris."

"Aeris was just growing plants and letting Karru practice by attacking a shield she had put up—and no matter what else was happening, Karru just kept attacking _the shield_ , not striking it in the process of trying to get to Aeris," Hana explained. "It took me awhile to realize it, but after thinking about it for awhile, it was clear Karru had chosen to attack an _inanimate object_ she couldn't actually _damage_ , let alone _kill_. Even when possessed. I'm still not clear on whether _you_ were aware during that time or not, Aeris."

"Um...I'm not entirely clear on that, either," the half-Cetra replied in some amusement. "I just remember wanting to grow lots of plants, obsessively, and wanting to put up a shield so no one attacked me while I did it. But, I sort of remember realizing the others were fighting, but since they really weren't doing a lot of harm, I guess I decided that was irrelevant and the plants were more important? Minerva was being really forceful in my mind right then, too, so maybe she more possessed me than the fiend in the cave did, just to negate the fiend's ability to do so?"

The others stared in surprise as Hana gave a wry grin. "So that's what happened to you." She then looked at Sora, then Eden, and back to Sora. "The two of you, on the other hand, I find it interesting how you _didn't_ kill one another when I had honestly thought you were fighting with the intent to kill. There's no explanation for that unless it's because you both fought one another so hard _because you knew_ it would come out a draw and your respective skills would effectively mean you couldn't do much harm to one another. I've seen both of you fight, and honestly—you're _easily_ at Aunt Yuna's and Auron's level of skill and power. Two people at that level who are equally matched and with offsetting skills would be able to let loose and fight freely without fear of hurting or killing the other, wouldn't they?"

Sora and Eden traded mildly surprised looks, then Eden looked back to Hana to ask, "Are you saying every one of us picked someone to attack who wouldn't actually suffer for it, even though we were possessed with the single-minded determination to kill one another?"

"Yes, Eden, that's what I'm saying," Hana agreed. "And for you, with how close to the edge you've been since Vanya and Tusati joined you, that means even _you_ couldn't be forced to kill." He stared at her in surprise as she looked around at all the others. "None of you are weak. Do you believe that _now_?"

They traded tentative looks until Karru pointed out sadly, "But, it still means we weren't there for you when you needed us."

"Even if you'd been there, you couldn't have protected me from the flood which would have been the death of me without Liarin," Hana replied pointedly. "In fact, if you _had_ been with me, there's a good chance some or all of you would be _dead_ —I don't know if Liarin could have made the transition quickly enough to a fayth and Aeon to have saved _all_ of you, or even if her Aeon abilities would have allowed her to do so. The only one who could have helped me send the fiend would have been Eden, which also would have forced Liarin to have to choose between us, which may also have meant she couldn't have done so, thereby not becoming a fayth and Aeon, and leaving us _both_ —and anyone else with us—dead."

A silence fell, then Gamahri's eyes widened as Koln gaped, "Did you just say you _sent_ a Sin-level fiend so strong it could overpower Kaillyr?"

Hana blushed and looked down as Eden snorted and said, "Yes, she did. And she had—still has, maybe—the gall to think she hadn't been 'strong enough' or 'able enough' to even give Liarin relief from the pain before she died."

"The Ronso—we build another Summoner statue. Long is has been since one was horn-worthy," Gamahri said, suddenly looking pleased. He then reached up to rub the bridge of his nose.

"Hana, I think Auntie Yuna is going to faint when she hears what you did," Karru commented in amusement to the older woman.

"Probably," Hana agreed in faint amusement, still blushing at Koln's, Eden's, and Gamahri's words.

"What do you mean, 'horn-worthy'?" Aeris asked curiously.

"Back in Yuna's day, when she passed through Mount Gagazet, she ended up with a statue of her, but with an addition of a horn on her forehead which looked just like the Ronso horns," Koln explained. "Not many Summoners before her passed through Mount Gagazet, and none besides her got the horn, so it's had pride of place for a long time, though it probably helps that she's still actively part of everyone's lives. A couple Summoners since then have also gotten a statue like that, but—I think the grand total is four, including Yuna. When the Ronso do that with a human, it means the Ronso have so much respect for those humans that they effectively qualify as Ronso in their eyes—the horned statue sort of represents their adoption into the tribe, I guess."

"Yeah, I saw those while I was there with Yuna," Eden said suddenly. Gamahri nodded. "When the Ronso who was showing me around told me about them, he said they were 'ancient warriors of the Ronso.' I guess that title would _also_ be part of the 'adoption'."

"It is," Gamahri agreed.

"How soon do you think Vanya and Tusati will be ready to tell us what they can about those creatures, Eden?" Hana asked suddenly, setting everyone off balance for a moment.

"I have no idea, and I'm not going to try to guess," the blond answered dryly. "Trust me—scientists, mechanics, and engineers do _everything_ on their own time, and don't take interruptions lightly. We both saw how hard they're working on it, though, so I don't think it will be overly long. Why?"

"I'm just wondering how long we should stay here," Hana replied. "I don't expect to leave today—I think we all need a little more time to adapt to what situation we were walking into, now that we know it. Some rest will do us well, also. We likely won't get any at the Moonflow, the Thunder Plains, or Macalania. Our next rest would be when we return to Bevelle, if we even do, for a few days, because there's no actual inn at Guadosalam yet—there aren't enough Guado there right now for there to be. There's an inn and tourist stop in the Plains, but I'd rather not stay in such a highly-charged area for too long."

"Yeah, that place is crazy weird, even _without_ the thunder and clouds it got its name from," Karru agreed with a faint sigh. "I know Aunt Rikku hates the place, too."

"I don't think _anyone_ likes the storm charge which is never _not_ there," Koln added.

"Maybe we should have invested in some tents..." Eden sighed.

Several blinks followed the words, then the others chuckled, making him glare at them. Hana explained, "There's a town at the Moonflow crossing. A shop there should have some, and both the Thunder Plains and Macalania are on the far side of that. I had just never thought of something so simple in a region now devoid of rest stops until most of the way to Bevelle now. It's a shame we can't ride on shoopufs for our crossing, just ordinary boats, though. I'd have liked to have done it the way Aunt Yuna originally did."

"What the Hell's a shoopuf?" Eden asked with an odd expression.

"A creature which has been extinct for nearly thirty-five hundred years now," Koln answered. "I guess they were rather large, gentle, and able to operate smoothly both on land and in water, so the Hypello had tamed them to shuttle people across the Moonflow. I've seen a few old Record Spheres with them in them—they mostly look like large, gray, quadrupedal creatures with a tapering tail and a long nose it liked to curl up into a tight spiral. The harnesses on their backs could carry a maximum of ten people. These days, the Hypello just use boats. Of course, that's now a tourism feature because people have been treating the underwater ruins like a literal tourist attraction to explore since not long after the Space Exodus. I've gone there to explore, too—it's actually a rather fascinating place."

"Maybe when we're not on a Pilgrimage, we should stop by and explore," Aeris grinned. "It sounds interesting!"

"Let's check if Vanya and Tusati are ready to tell us anything," Karru cut in, looking like she was pouting. When the others looked at her in surprise, she replied, "Getting Aunt Sanni to let me do this—if that's the right way to say it—was hard enough. She'd _never_ let me go exploring an underwater city ruin."

"...Doesn't having completed a Pilgrimage as a Guardian give you a certain amount of respect and rights she can't circumvent?" Sora asked slowly.

"If I was sixteen by then, maybe. If I was eighteen, I could probably just walk away without her even saying anything," Karru replied. "But I'm probably only going to be fifteen, at best, by the time we're done, and probably not even that. She's still going to see me like a helpless kid, even if I've proven myself to everyone _else_."

A few of the others were about to say something, but Eden rose with a sigh and said, "Well, let's check on Vanya and Tusati, then." The others traded startled looks, but they all rose and followed him back to his room.

Vanya had apparently decided to sit on the bed beside Libby while Tusati examined the image of the creature from the feet up after having turned the image so the feet were pointed at his face. Both looked over at them, and Tusati absently motioned them into the room as he turned back to his examination.

"So, how are you doing?" Eden asked them. "Ready to share, or should we find other things to do for awhile longer?"

"There isn't much more we can learn from this image. Another sample may yield more data and results, but this one—Tusati's just finishing up one last thing he wanted to check," Vanya replied. "They definitely are unique, but we're not sure how to class them. The outer shell you can see is just that—an outer shell. We don't know what's under it, but there's a strong likelihood they would look more humanoid under it, or possibly similar to the Hypello, given how well they operate in the water."

"It's _all_ a shell?" Hana asked in surprise.

"So it seems to be," Tusati agreed, gaze moving to her for a moment. "There are reasons for that—for example, for creatures obviously operating underwater, this shell would have required far superior sealing were it acting as their 'skin', which clearly indicates it is no such thing. There are too many independent pieces, too many chinks in their 'shell' for it to be anything more than well-made armor. Whether that makes them biological or mechanical beneath the armor, we are uncertain as yet."

"It could go either way, or both for that matter," Vanya added. "We know they can even remove their hand and foot claws if they so choose, which indicates they _do_ have some mechanical components built right in to their bodies, but we can only verity those at their extremities. Without removing their chest and back armor, we have no way of knowing what's beneath it. For what it's worth, they could well have simply replaced their arms and legs with cybernetic implants so they could 'switch off' hand and foot types for their own convenience."

"Who does something like _that_?" Karru gaped in shocked horror.

"Who chooses to suffer agony and an early physical death for a chance to survive in an Essence Sphere?" Tusati asked of the girl, making her turn to stare at him. "There are people, and there are reasons. They may not be good ones, but they mean a great deal to the one taking that action." He then straightened and looked at Eden. "More than once, I have asked your little record-keeper to show me images of the metal-work, in all forms, of today—both Gaian and Spiran. The one thing which stands out the most to me now, here, is that these creatures _are not_ a modern design, either Spiran or Gaian. The traits I am seeing in their crafting, even just of their armor, are traits I recognize from _my_ era, so long ago."

A long silence followed as everyone stared at him in shock, but after a pause, Eden managed to get out, "Wait, what? Are you saying—they're somehow from _your_ time?"

Tusati looked off into the distance for a moment before turning back to Eden and clarifying, "To be fair, they could have been created at any point around that time—I am uncertain as to when trends in processing, materials, and formation changed. We had been using the same forms of those for approximately four hundred years by then, and it is likely those forms remained the common trend for at least another hundred years. These creatures could have been created at any point during that span of time, which we have no definitive end date for."

"If they were created 'around that time', surely you have some idea of what their weaknesses would be?" Sora asked, gaze intent and curious.

"To an extent," Tusati replied. "For example, this metal has been so tempered that it would survive the heat of an active volcano without damage. A being bearing it, therefore, is immune to fire castings. If they are biological beneath the armor, heat would still most likely cause them harm, regardless of flames, but we have no way of knowing that. The same would be true of cold. However, the one weakness of the armor is its state as a conductor—electricity is magnified for any entity wearing such armor. In a place which is filled with such energy—the Thunder Plains, for example—they would never survive more than minutes."

After a startled silence, Eden commented, "I think we just found a use for Liarin's weather control ability, Hana."

"Assuming we're in a place where she can so easily call lightning, yes," the young woman agreed.

"Eden, didn't they say the creatures went onto Bikanel—a desert island—and left almost right away?" Libby suddenly asked.

"They did. Why?" the blond Turk asked in reply.

"The only thing different about Bikanel from everywhere else they went is that it's a desert—very hot. Wouldn't that mean they don't like heat?" Libby explained, and everyone blinked at her, first puzzled, then stunned with realization. "If what Tusati said is true, wouldn't that mean they're biological and can't handle the heat, even if fire—spells—don't hurt them because of their armor?"

"The likelihood of that goes up, yes," Eden agreed. "Thanks, Libby. Tusati, Vanya, are you done with this, then?"

"We are," Tusati agreed, and Vanya nodded.

"Good. You can deactivate it now, Libby," the blond Turk told her.

"Okay!" she agreed, and the image vanished, then she shook herself out and turned to jump onto Eden's shoulder. He instinctively patted her head as she did.

His gaze moved to the two fayth then, as he said, "Thanks for your assessment of this—it's a huge help. All done, or was there anything else you needed to say—or wanted to do, for that matter?"

They traded looks, then Tusati said, "Eden, it may be asking a bit much of you, but...If Libby is correct to say a few dead of these creatures remained in that cave—the Den of Woe—we would very much like to see that sample. I suppose what we would do would be a form of autopsy. However, if that would deepen your wounds, we may have to wait for another opportunity."

The group _all_ blinked in shock, but Eden kept meeting Tusati's gaze evenly as the others' eyes widened in horror and they traded apprehensive looks. "You aren't really thinking of going back there, are you, Eden?" Hana asked softly.

He gritted his teeth for a moment, then asked, "The fiend is gone, isn't it?" Silence followed the question, so he closed his eyes and tapped Kaillyr's mind, asking him, _:The Den of Woe's fiend is gone now, right?:_

 _:It is,:_ Kaillyr agreed.

Opening his eyes again, he met Tusati's gaze as he said, "I'm not going to let fear control me. Even if I feel it—it won't choose my actions. _I_ choose my actions. If letting you two pick apart a corpse can give us answers, I'd rather that then to not have them because I'm _too scared_ to go back to a place which is now safe. And frankly, we _don't_ have memories of the Den which count as 'fear-inducing', even if they caused us other problems, like guilt. Hana is the only one of us who would actually need to face _fear_ going back there. Either way, I'm going back. The rest of the group can wait here for us to get back if they aren't ready yet, and if Hana doesn't want to go, then at least _some_ of her Guardians _need_ to stay with her, anyway."

"I'm going, too!" Libby immediately said as Tusati and Vanya both smiled.

"I'll go," Aeris added. "My recollection of it wasn't nearly so upsetting as everyone else's was, so I'm okay with that."

There was a pause, then Karru surprised everyone by saying, "I'll go."

"But why?" Hana asked the younger girl in amazement.

"Because I need to practice, and even if that fiend isn't there anymore, there will still be monsters to fight," Karru replied dryly, meeting Eden's gaze. "And even Auntie Rikku said that sometimes I would be scared, but if I let that stop me, I'd be no use to anyone. So, I have to—face it and move forward. I can't any other way, because I don't really have successes behind me to keep me from just...quitting."

"You and Aeris could wait outside the entrance if you want," Eden offered. "There will probably be more monsters outside than inside."

"We'll see when we get there," Karru replied.

He nodded, then looked around at the others. Both Gamahri and Sora were looking at Hana, but Koln was looking away, expression a bit pinched. "Hana?" he asked.

She looked down for a minute, then sighed and met his gaze as she said, "I can't yet. Another time, when I've been able to put some distance between this event and my own memory, I'll come back and face it, but right now...it _is_ too close to me."

"Then—" Koln began hopefully.

"No, Koln—you're coming with us," Eden cut him off.

"When did you apparently decide that?" Koln glared at him.

"When I noted how Gamahri and Sora were just waiting on _Hana's_ decision, but _you_ were wrapped in your own thoughts, and now you're grasping at any chance to avoid what you know you need to do," the blond replied bluntly, causing Koln to gape for a moment before glaring viciously. "Your problem is actually the bleed-through of Paine's memories, which she obviously never fully dealt with, either. You're letting her experiences there influence your own. If you don't start separating those memories again, they'll take over and you'll be more _her_ than you'll be _yourself_. Face it, Koln."

"I think that would be for the best, as well," Hana added quietly, resting a hand on Koln's shoulder. He turned to look at her accusingly, making her smile wanly and say, "All you would get with me is a reprieve, not negation. I've already made my decision to return here, likely soon after the Pilgrimage is over. If you stay with me now, you'll still have to return again then. And in the meantime, the same problem both Eden and I are worried about will be left to fester. Please, face this now, Koln. Your memories of it, for what little you remember, aren't a fraction of what Paine's were, so push her memories and yours apart."

He was silent for a long moment before finally sighing and agreeing, "All right, I'll go with the others. Are we waiting until after lunch or taking the meal with us?"

"Let's go now, rather than waiting," Karru replied. "I don't really want to prolong it, you know? That'll make it worse, too much time to create disasters in my head."

After a pause, everyone else chuckled, but Eden agreed, "Let's go collect some food, then, and head out." Aeris and Koln also agreed, so he faced Hana and said, "Take care of yourself while we're gone, all right?"

She nodded with a faint smile. "You as well. Good luck."

With that, the group bound for a return to the Den of Woe headed out, and Hana, Gamahri, and Sora found themselves in the Temple's library, reading and talking as they distracted themselves from their worry about the group at the Den.


	74. 70-Pilgrim's Progress

Pilgrim's Progress

When they reached the Den of Woe, Eden paused at the entrance to draw in a deep breath, then faced the others. Aeris looked fine, and Libby rubbing her head on his cheek let him know she was also fine, but both Karru and Koln had the same sort of wary, apprehensive expression he knew he did. "So, who's coming in with me?" he asked, meeting Koln's gaze.

The older man returned it for a long moment before drawing in a deep breath of his own and nodding. "That was the point of my coming back here."

He looked at Karru then, and she licked her lips nervously before saying, "I'll at least look around some, but no promises on how long I'll stay."

With a nod, Eden turned back to the entrance and forced himself past it, his steps heavier than normal as he made his way slowly down the main tunnel. Koln and Karru followed him, also walking hesitantly and heavily, with Aeris bringing up the rear. They made it to the first large chamber, where they paused. There was no sound, there was no pressure, there was no weight, there was nothing odd at all in their surroundings. All at once, both Eden and Karru relaxed, then Eden faced Koln, who still looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack.

Moving directly in front of him, which drew the other man's eyes to his, Eden told him, "Stop letting her memory take over, Koln." Koln looked away, so the blond took a moment to think before asking, "The cave looks different now than it did, then, doesn't it?"

Koln blinked and looked back at him for a moment before looking around at the cavern they stood in. "It...seems to," he agreed after a minute.

"Then go look around and find every point of difference you can—it will help separate her memories from yours," Eden told him. "You don't have to stay with me for what I'm doing."

"I'll just wait here for the others to come back," Aeris said. "Since I think Karru can go with Koln to explore, and you'll be busy for awhile, we may go back out to the entrance to fight stuff while we wait for you, Eden."

"However it works," Eden agreed, then gave Karru and Koln a nod and turned to head for the path leading down to where the few corpses of those creatures were.

He heard Koln sigh as he went, but no one called him back, so he kept going, and called Tusati and Vanya back to him as he got to the chamber which was half-filled with water and bursting with plant life. It seemed all but one of the corpses had vanished, and the one which remained had been hidden in the foliage near the top of the cavern, something they only knew because Libby had initially been stranded there with it by the sudden flood. It didn't take too long for them to retrieve it and lay it out on the section of dry ground near the entrance so Vanya and Tusati could start picking it apart, Eden occasionally helping them if they asked, and Libby recording the whole thing.

Once the outer shell was off, the two fayth dismissed the blond Turk, so he sat by the water's edge, leaning on a tree as he waited for them to finish what they were doing, and for Libby to be done recording. While he was there, Koln came and sat down beside him, staring out over the room for awhile as they both just sat silently.

Finally, the older man said, "I feel better now. Even though I hated you at first, and even Hana, for making me come back here...I realize what you both meant. So, thank you."

"Good to know it helped," Eden replied. "That's the most important part."

After a pause, Koln chuckled and said, "You should seriously have your own set of Guardians and be a Summoner who's on Pilgrimage right now, too, not another Summoner's Guardian."

"I don't _need_ my own Pilgrimage right now," Eden replied in a dry tone. "I'm having a hard enough time just being a Guardian."

"Are you?" the gray haired man asked in surprise, blinking at the blond.

With a faint sigh, Eden told him, "I'm not great at the whole 'being objective' thing, and I've been— _raw_ —since Vanya..." He paused, then added, "And Tusati made it worse. Yuna's been trying to work me through those things for months, and her progress has only been—well, a bit better than marginal. As much as I have the necessary skills to be a Summoner, I _don't_ feel like I'm anything like _ready to be_ one."

For a minute, Koln was quiet, but then he said, "Stop trying so hard to emulate Yuna, Eden."

"What?" the blond blinked, turning to face him fully, gaze confused.

The older man looked faintly amused as he said, "Yes, Yuna has a lot of time, a lot of experience, and a lot of respect going for her. She's also the last relic of an era which was singularly cruel to its people—to its Summoners. Yes, you need a certain amount of objectivity to get along in life, but so does _everyone_ , and most Summoners _aren't_ so completely objective as Yuna is. She's an ideal created in Hellfire and honed over thirty-five hundred years, something no one else will ever be able to do, something no one else will ever be able to _be_.

"Yuna...isn't 'real' in the same way you and Hana are, Eden. There's nothing about her which actually ties her directly to us, there's nothing we can relate to with her, and the most 'human' I _ever_ saw her was when she threw that fit on Sanni. You and Hana are both still tied to us, both still share our experiences, both have feeling and expression we _need_ to see to know you're also human and also make mistakes. How can you help us fix _our_ problems if you've never had to fix your own? Objectively, we know Yuna has, and we take her counsel seriously for that reason, but...Hearing _you_ explain how to overcome fear or anger means far more than it does when _Yuna_ gives the same advice."

"...That's great, but what does that have to do with me emulating her?" Eden asked slowly, trying to puzzle out what Koln was trying to say.

"It happens to everyone she trains, just as an instinctive reaction," Koln shrugged then. "I've gone back over Record Spheres of her lessons with other Summoners over the last few hundred years, mostly out of curiosity when I first got wind of Hana in training and Karru wanting to be one of her Guardians. None of them went into it trying to behave just like Yuna, but over time, they would start trying to, and would feel they had failed if they couldn't do what she does. She comes across as so perfect and all-knowing, even to someone who knows better—like you—that you keep trying to reach for that standard.

"Hana pulled back from that emulation with some exposure to the Turks, and Yuna's fit made her back into her own person. _You_ had barely begun, so you still fell into the trap, only really saved from a complete takeover by your temper, if what I heard about you and Yuna getting into an _actual fight_ is true. The thing which amazes me the most is that Yuna even _tries_ to make her students stay independent of her, to still be themselves, but they _all_ still try to emulate her until something forces them to stop."

"When has she tried to make me be myself?" Eden frowned.

"I'm sure she told you, probably pretty recently, that there's exceptions to everything— _including objectivity_ —right?"

"...She did...But—"

"Objectivity has limits, and she _knows_ that. You live in the real world with the rest of us, so you could _never_ be completely 'objective', and she _knows_ that. Time, circumstance, people, shifts in situations—every time things change, there's a good chance objectivity will get thrown out the window... _and she knows that_. She's _not_ trying to make you _always_ be objective, Eden, she's trying to make sure your bias won't completely control you, like what happened with Vanya, yes?"

The blond had to sigh at the words, but nodded as he said, "That was a particularly strong reaction and almost killed a lot of people—even me. She talked me through it to a point where I could manage to resolve the situation, then deal reasonably well with Tusati, but..." He paused, then sighed and explained, "It's not that I'm emulating her. She and the Turks are the only people I know who actually manage to help me get my head on straight, and Yuna is actively working on finding and fixing problems, not dealing with the fallout of a breakdown like the Turks did. They were good at it, too, when something came up so they knew it was a problem they could fix, but Yuna's track record is higher— _because_ she has so much more knowledge than they do, and most of what she knows is the technical details _I need_ in order to resolve things."

Again, Koln was quiet for a moment, then he nodded and said, "But you're a lot better at guiding others than you realize, Eden, objectivity and experiences intact. You're actually _ready_ to be a Summoner, and it's only because Hana doesn't feel ready to take on the responsibility of promoting you to that status which means you haven't been yet."

"If that was true, Yuna would have 'promoted' me before we left," Eden glared.

With a shake of the head and an amused look, Koln replied, "But _you_ weren't ready. She knew you didn't feel secure enough in yourself to take the title and role yet. I think she'd give it to you now, though."

Both lapsed into silence after that, Eden needing time to think and Koln knowing he needed it, until Tusati and Vanya informed the two that they had learned all they could, so they could return to the Temple. The two fayth vanished, Libby hopped onto Eden's shoulder, and the two men made their way out of the cave. By the entrance, they found Aeris taking care of two Basilisks as Karru worked diligently on a third. Both watched the women in bemusement as Aeris first defeated one of hers, then a few minutes later, she defeated the second as Karru's also fell. The younger girl stared in shock for a moment, then gave an exuberant 'whoop' of elation.

"See, you're stronger than you thought, Karru," Aeris told her happily.

"Yeah, I guess so," she agreed with a wide grin, then faced the two men and Libby. "So, all done?" Aeris turned to them with a grin as well.

"Yeah, all done. Let's go back," Eden agreed.

When they returned to Djose Temple, they encountered Gamahri in the entry hall, his hands filled with food—likely supper for Hana, Sora, and himself, though there was obviously too much of it for just the three of them. When he saw them, he used his head to motion them to follow, so they did, and soon found themselves in the library with Hana and Sora as well. Koln offered Hana the same apology he'd given Eden, getting back nearly the same response from her as Eden had given, then the group settled in to find out what Tusati and Vanya had to say.

It was Libby who told them, "Tusati and Vanya are tired, but I recorded everything, so I can tell you what they said." The others traded looks, then gave agreement, so she said, "They're something like what Vanya called a 'cyborg', or sort of a half-biological Machina. They have reproductive systems, but they need to manually modify a fetus to come out like they are, so it's pretty delicate. They've evolved some over time, too, but there were only a few things they could see which were different from what would have been the original design—it's likely their hands weren't like they are now, for example. Those aren't major, though. Their eyes are a half-way between ours and an 'actual Machina's', like Karru's, so they can't do things like open the door Karru did, but they can see more flaws in metals and energy than a normal person."

She paused, then said, "Most of their brain is actually not biological, so they _do_ have 'computer' brains that are part of an artificial intelligence, but not quite like the Machina had, either. They can learn, and can live peacefully, but it's obvious by some of their features that they were made originally for war, so the programming for that is already part of them. They seem to have some degree of emotion, too, but it's more like the kind Dark Nation had, not like we have—it's not complex emotion. The 'skin' they have under the armor and protecting—and holding together—their biological parts is more like a layer of rubber, but it's not complete protection from lightning."

"Any actual physical weaknesses in their armor?" Koln asked thoughtfully.

"If you hit one of the creases, especially on their chests or the neck, you would probably be able to push through there with just a normal—bladed or piercing—weapon," Libby answered after a pause, ears twitching methodically. "Most of the rest is too shielded, or not biological, so not weak. They have a requirement for moisture and can only be out of it for so long before they have to go back, otherwise their rubbery 'skin' and other biological parts will start to dry out. That's why they can't handle hot places like Bikanel. That's probably also one of those evolutionary things, since they're not actually great at a ground assault as they are now, but it's things on land they'd mostly have needed to be able to attack, most of them not on the coast."

"Was there anything else useful in what they said?" Sora asked.

"That's about as much as they can give without being able to find out if they could talk and answer some questions, or if they _would_ answer questions if they _can_ ," Libby replied. "But they're sentient, and they were made by humans, so they _should_ be _able_ to communicate with us somehow. I don't think they would willingly unless someone gave them a really good reason to."

"So, if that's all, then—let's rest for the evening, and see how we all feel after breakfast tomorrow," Hana offered the group, and with everyone's agreement, they all retired for what was left of the day.

FoW

Morning saw them all largely refreshed, so after they had eaten, they set out north from the crossroads at the coast on Djose Highroad. It wasn't far to the official start of the South Bank Road leading from the end of the Mi'ihen and Djose Highroads to the Moonflow. Rather than the odd, mushroom-shaped rocks they had been passing, the terrain turned more natural as they moved away from the ocean coast, instead following the riverbank inland. Peering down into the water showed them what looked like an oddly well-kept city much like Central, Midgar, or Junon, just more sleek and refined.

"Is it just me, or does that city look like Midgar's Upper Plate?" Aeris asked Eden as they walked, the pair side-by-side at the edge of the road.

"Midgar's Upper Plate?" Karru asked in confusion. "It doesn't have one, does it?"

"That's a different city, Karru," Hana told her in faint amusement.

"But Midgar—" the girl began, still obviously confused.

"There was once a city _just_ called 'Midgar', not New Midgar, just like Neo Zanarkand was once called just 'Zanarkand'. The only reason this is puzzling you at all is because you haven't bothered to remind yourself that the Gaians actually arrived here from another world, which was where Midgar existed. To you, there's no 'Midgar', just New Midgar, so you think of them as one and the same," Hana explained. "But does this city really look so much like the Midgar on the planet Gaia?" The last question was directed at the Gaians, not at Karru.

"It looks more refined in some ways," Eden replied to Hana. "But yes, it looks a whole lot like Midgar. How good of shape it's in given what it's been exposed to is actually nothing short of a miracle—this kind of city would normally have broken down and vanished in about a hundred years. We call them monolithic structures, but they're far from permanent, and always require repairs so they don't fall apart. Even Midgar, it would have fallen apart without people taking care of it. And where it's located is another puzzle, unless there was no river here when it was built."

"Legend has it that it had been built on a bridge over the river, but it grew too heavy for the bridge and dropped into the river," Koln filled in. "Wakka likes to talk about that and how it's just proof about how bad it is to mis-use technology or power."

"With the very obvious problem that, if it had been built on a bridge which collapsed under the weight, it wouldn't be so—undamaged," Sora put in dryly. The Spirans all turned to face her in surprise as the group stopped on the road. She raised a brow, asking, "What, did no one ever have the sense to realize a collapsing bridge damages the bridge _and everything on it_? The city down there would _not_ be nearly pristine if it had been on a bridge which had collapsed, it would be damaged, bent, broken, twisted, with buildings leaning every which way, no roadways to follow, and not nearly so many buildings you could safely explore."

"Yeah, this city just looks more like it's frozen in time as it was when it got swamped—which _also_ means it wasn't actually a flood which swept over it, as that would also have caused a lot more damage than we're seeing here," Eden went on with the thought. "Well, it wasn't a rapid flood, at least. This area, as I said before, probably wasn't a riverbed when the city was built, but if the source of the river came up a bit at a time, it's possible the flood was a slow process which forced people to move out. If the city flooded slowly over time, it would have done very little damage as long as the ground it was built on was solid enough. In the meantime, an evacuation would have needed to happen when the water still wasn't very deep, and it's possible places like Bevelle and Zanarkand were populated by the refugees from _this_ city as it flooded."

"And for the record, if building cities on bridges wasn't okay, why is Bevelle—the seat of power of the same people claiming such things were wrong— _built on a bridge_?" Aeris added in her oh-so-innocent way.

"True!" Eden agreed with a wide grin. "Yuna actually told me Bevelle had been built that way before Sin emerged, and people just kept using it because Sin hadn't destroyed it, or only ever done minimal damage there as long as they didn't develop much technology. The result is that most people either forgot, or never knew, Bevelle was even built on a bridge—a man-made one, not a natural one. But that _also_ means Wakka's basic premise for right and wrong was flawed." He looked into the water again and said, "But still...it's like it's stuck in stasis, and the only thing that's missing is people. How?"

"I think that's a question for another time, Eden," Hana laughed outright. "Let's keep going—we need to cross the river before nightfall. There's an inn on the far side we can stay at if we need to, but the ships from the South Bank to the North only start running after the noon meal, when the first ship from the North Bank returns. I'd rather be across today than have to wait for midday tomorrow."

The group proceeded towards the town which had developed on the shore of the South Bank, generally in good cheer after their discussion about the underwater city. Back in Yuna's time, there had really only been a small collection of peddlers on each side of the river, but over time, people had actively begun to move into the area, especially once the Hypello had taken to using boats to shuttle people across the river. The docks and ships took much less space and had nearly no smell, leading to more permanence for anything which had later developed there. The South Bank Town was larger than the North Bank Town, but not vastly, and it had only a fraction of the people who now lived in Besaid.

It didn't take them long to find a shop which sold tents, then to book passage on a ship to the North Bank, which—unlike the South Bank—was rather densely forested. They arrived in time for supper, and the whole group decided to go with Eden to check the site of the attack which had happened there. Afterwards, they rested at the inn in North Bank Town, and in the morning, they set out towards the Thunder Plains.

On the way, they found the turn-off to Guadosalam, which effectively led them into a large cave and a massive cavern underground. It was oddly swamp-like and built in the twisting roots of the trees growing on the North Bank of the Moonflow. The Guado had been working to make it livable again, but with how few of them remained, it was a lengthy process. The result meant they had only a rudimentary general shop, no inn, and only a small section of living quarters ready—much of their recent efforts had needed to go to making the main level travel-worthy.

As such, the group didn't stay there long, proceeding to the Thunder Plains almost right away, though they stopped for an overnight rest at the border of the Plains. When they set out, it was bright and sunny, and by midday, cloud cover had begun forming. It was definitely a highly-charged area, and an occasional lightning bolt shot out of the sky, near to them or at a distance, and while there were traces of locations which were struck repeatedly, they were few and far between. The area was oddly moist, even away from the coast and the river.

They weren't able to make it as far as the traveler's inn by the time they had to stop, so they set up their tents—chosen because they didn't use metal or only used rubber-coated metal—and rested, with Eden keeping his Enemy Away Materia equipped overnight. Morning came early and brightly sunny, so they gathered their tents and other goods and set out. Around noon, the cloud cover came in again, and rain began falling around supper—which, thankfully, was also when they reached the traveler's inn.

Sun was again shining in the morning, so they set out from the inn, still heading north. That night, when they stopped to sleep, it was dry again, and the next day not long after the clouds came in, they managed to reach the edge of the Plains and Macalania Woods. It was an old growth forest, or should have been—it even looked like it would be, except for the fact that everyone knew the trees there were only six months old. At the first crossroads in the Woods, they stopped to discuss what they wanted to do on the next segment of the journey, and decided to skip Bevelle entirely—they had seen quite enough of it and it was, frankly, out of their way to go back.

Instead, they decided to first head north to Lake Macalania, then east to the Calm Lands, where there was another a traveler's inn just past the forest. While there was a road straight through to Neo Zanarkand, the majority of the Calm Lands was a cross between an amusement park and open plains for monster hunting, so a lack of inn would have been a deterrent to the tourist attraction now there. One of the most popular attractions was the Monster Arena which had been the founding attraction at the current large-scale amusement park.

Since their first stop was the Lake, they made the trip through the Woods, stopping to sleep overnight three times on the way. Monster attacks were actually more frequent there, but most of the monsters were still weak enough to be repelled at night by Eden's Enemy Away. They got to the Lake and found the post there—it had been significantly damaged by the attack on it, and not only was the population there cut down substantially, but there wasn't anywhere to rest which wasn't already full to the brim. The post had never been more than a tiny village at best, and the attack had definitely done it no favors.

In the Lake, the remains of a Temple were visible, but there was nothing to it—Hana explained how it had once belonged to the Shiva Yuna had gained during her Pilgrimage thousands of years ago. No fayth had since formed there, and with its current position, no one had bothered to try to make it livable again—the people who could access it were limited. As such, they pitched their tents again that night, and set out in the morning, heading for the Calm Lands, a trip which took nearly two days. It was probably also the only place which had seen little exposure to Sin since the one major attack Sin had launched on it.

There had apparently been a large city there at one time, but the only thing left of the city was the Temple not far from the Macalania entrance to the Calm Lands. Unlike back when Yuna had first made the trip, there was now also a complete passage to the Temple so travelers could get there without a chocobo. Around the time Summoning started up again, the Temple had been repopulated, as well, and it was the only place where the statues of every successful Summoner during the thousand years of Sin's reign could be seen, from Yunalesca to Yuna.

Since the Temple had been attacked by Sin, the Calm Lands had been just a plainsland, with nothing but a road from the Woods to Zanarkand (in all its various incarnations) crossing it. Or rather, back then, the road had led to Mount Gagazet, which then proceeded on to Zanarkand. Since that time, not only had the Calm Lands built up significantly, but a road had been built directly across the plains to Zanarkand, and a slice cut out of the mountain range along the southern coast to allow travelers direct passage. Of course, no one ever said that Yuna was the reason for the start of the lower path, during one of her instances of 'throwing a fit', but Yuna herself had told all of her apprentices that fact.

There were no airships housed on the plains or at the mountain, making the nearest ports the ones at Bevelle and Neo Zanarkand. As such, most travel in the area was done either on foot or on chocobo-back. For the amusement park, that was highly beneficial, since it pretty much guaranteed foot traffic would stop there and spend money. The current technology in the Calm Lands likely would have drawn Sin's attention, but now—it was a tourist trap of the highest order. They only realized it when they reached the inn...and ended up staying there to play for five days.

The one thing which puzzled Eden was apparently how they hadn't crossed Yuna's path while on their own trek, and she had begun in Neo Zanarkand...


	75. 71-Encounter of the Worst Kind

Encounter of the Worst Kind

When they finally left the amusement park on Chocobo-back, for the purposes of their Pilgrimage, they chose to take the Mount Gagazet route to Neo Zanarkand, stopping briefly at the coastal town at the base of the mountain. It was actually at the town where the paths split to go the direct route to Neo Zanarkand (the one along the coast, which Yuna had accidentally begun) or to head up Mount Gagazet. While most of the Ronso lived much farther up the snowy, cold mountain, in their central city, there were a few small groups of them who had formed small villages around the base of it, which was the reason a town was there at all. It was also the one which had been attacked, but a check of the site showed nothing new to learn.

From there, they kept moving, back on foot, on a two-day trek rather steeply uphill, heading up Mount Gagazet to the city of Ronsos, which still held the same name as the mountain. Their stay there was only two days, largely because Hana wasn't very happy with the result of Gamahri telling them about the fiend in the Den of Woe—they immediately began working on a statue in her honor. She found it embarrassing (especially her Guardians' amusement), and was more than happy to head down from the mountain to Neo Zanarkand, a journey of about two days where they could stop at a cave to rest.

From above, at the top of the path leading down to Neo Zanarkand, they got a good look at the city—and the Gaians all immediately said, "That looks just like the city under the Moonflow." Of course, that caused all the Spirans to stop and stare at the city in shock before giving almost grudging agreement to the fact. It wasn't that they hadn't seen Neo Zanarkand before—every one of them except for Karru had. Rather, it was that no one had ever called their attention to such a detail before, and most of them had only seen it from directly above as an airship descended, not from a similar angle to how they were able to look at the city in the Moonflow.

Neo Zanarkand had largely rebuilt based on the ruins which had been there from what was left of the Machina War and Sin's creation, giving it a rather more rounded and almost 'slick' look than most cities, but it also had plenty of squares and angles. In that, it was also somewhat different from the underwater city remains, but it was a minor difference when the scope of the buildings was compared. Equally as large, if not larger, and with level upon level of production, commercial, and residential spaces, it had _grown_ in proportion since the Sundering had made it largely unlivable. Even as they watched, it was growing upward, new levels being added to the tops of the existing ones as people diligently worked to rebuild—and apparently 'improve'—their home city.

They had both docks and airship docks there, but like in most other areas, most water shipping routes had stopped since the attacks, leaving only fairly frequent airship travel. After having a look at the area of the docks which had been attacked, they boarded an airship which would first take them to Bikanel, then from Bikanel to Erva Eyja. It was obvious in short order that Bikanel was indeed a desert island, but also that it was covered in ruins. While the vast majority of Al Bhed had been living on airships for generations, there was still a fair group of them who preferred a more stable place to live, and Bikanel had been their ancestral home since before the Machina War. As such, there was always a city of Al Bhed somewhere on the island.

Upon their arrival, the group found many of the ruins cleared and the sand held back by built barriers so the ruins could be explored safely. At first, it had been for research purposes and excavation had been limited to certain Al Bhed and some Sphere Hunters. Later, the area had been kept by the Al Bhed due to sheer possessiveness. Then, most of the buildings had been fully uncovered and they had completed their research, so someone had the bright idea to set up the barriers and let non-Al Bhed pay to look around them. It was easily as much of a tourist attraction as the amusement park in the Calm Lands.

Since the group had learned their lesson in the Calm Lands, they chose to designate that as a place to visit again later, after the Pilgrimage. In the meantime, they asked to see the area where the creatures had apparently come on land, and were shown to one strip of coastal desert where a ruin was especially near the shore—it was an anomaly in proximity to the water's edge. The evidence of their presence had pretty much washed away by then, other than in one section well above the water line and near the barrier wall around the ruin. For what they could tell, it looked just like the 'prints' left behind on the sandy shore by Besaid.

Unable to learn any more there, the group returned to the airship and proceeded to Erva Eyja. The large, open area in the spiked wall around the island had been turned into a small port for both ships and airships, and wooden homes with straw roofs had been built around Omega Rock. Most of the remainder of the island had been left natural, where only clearings and open spaces in the foliage had been cultivated for food-producing plants. It was clear any fruit-bearing trees were also being harvested and added to their food supply, and the Cetra were looking healthier, rather than the sickly, near pure white they had originally been. Around the homes was a barrier similar to the one Eden had shown the twins to create.

The barrier had been the result of the attack on Erva Eyja, though in their case, the attack had resulted in shockingly few deaths as the attackers had left—or been forced to leave—by the barrier being put up in a hurry. Once they had gone, the original barrier had been taken down and quickly replaced with the proper one they currently had. Nothing new could be learned from the remains of the attack, so the group only stayed a couple days before taking an airship to Hourai, the Wutain city on Gaia.

They had already begun branching out to develop other, smaller villages further inland or along the coast to the east of the major port city in the south of Gaia. While Gonyon—which would be their next stop—was well-established, they hadn't yet begun developing offshoot villages, leaving Hourai as the major power there. Godo actually met their group at the port, a hyper-as-ever Yufi and Illis with him as the girl hugged Eden and Godo offered them places to stay. He had foregone a palace as he'd previously had and instead just claimed a suite in the building he'd developed as emergency housing for anyone in need.

After checking the site of the attack, the group stayed there for four days as Eden found himself meeting with the various Wutains he knew, from Yufi and her father to Captain Inagi, and still others. He was actually shockingly popular with the people there, and it didn't take him long to retreat to their library, frustrated with all the attention. It was only a shame it was a small library put together by people who had worked to re-create the works they had left behind on the planet Gaia. When he actively sought retreat, Godo told the group it was likely time for them to move on, so they set out the following morning.

Traveling west towards Gonyon showed them one thing—monsters, animals, and plant life they'd found in Wutai, the Cosmo Canyon area, the Gongaga area, and the Corel area were all present between the two cities. It was swelteringly hot, and while they had variation between grasslands, tropical forests, and arid spaces (the deserts were further inland), the heat never changed. As they were following the coastal road (which easily took four days to travel on foot), it was also a humid heat, and even the cooler breezes off the ocean offered little reprieve. Over-all, it wasn't the most pleasant walk the group had managed to date.

As the 'attack' on Gonyon hadn't actually reached them, Hana and her Guardians chose to track their path through the wilderness between the coast and the mountain where Gonyon had been built before going to town and resting. It was both a shorter and a quieter stay, though Deneh, Nanaki, and a few other Motos who had opted for homes on the main continent met with them to exchange data. Nothing new or of note could be added to their data list, so they headed in the direction of Fjallheim.

While the coastal road between Hourai and Gonyon was a simple, straight path, the road network between Fjallheim and the other two cities was much more complicated and ultimately resulted in two different roads leading to Fjallheim through the mountains. One was a road heading south through the thickest part of the mountains and onto the plains nearest Hourai, and the other headed west from Fjallheim and turned south near the western coast of the range. As it proceeded south towards Gonyon, it stayed within easy walking distance of the coast.

Knowing the strange creatures tended to come from the water, the group chose the coastal road from Gonyon. Given their current location, it was the shorter route, but it was also one of the longest walks they had faced yet—six days, at least, with no established inns or villages yet. They were suddenly thankful for the tents they had purchased and kept with them, as it seemed they still had need of them. Three stops took them to the base of the mountains, the last at the base of them, which they had to take because they had no idea when they would find the first suitable location to pitch tents once in the mountains, where space for such things was very limited.

For the first day they spent in the mountains, it was a steady, up-hill climb, but not terribly steep, and the road was well-tended and shockingly established for something so new—Fjallheim had only been around for two months at best. Most of the route was a pleasant temperature, but as they were heading into evening and looking for a suitable place to camp, the temperature had obviously dropped sharply. The onset of night was only partially to blame; their altitude was the major factor. Their campsite also forced them to stop earlier, so they knew they would only reach Fjallheim on the fourth day in the mountains. On the second and third days, they were traveling along a route interspersed with sharp, uphill climbs, gentle slopes, and flat sections, and were expecting to reach the turn inland that evening or early the following morning.

Not long after they'd resumed their trek after stopping for the midday meal on the third day, they heard shouting from just around the corner on the path ahead of them, so rushed forward. Turning the corner, they could see a rather large clearing where some trees had rooted to the side against the mountains, but it was otherwise open save some grass and flowers. However, what caught their attention was how waves of those creatures were attacking a group of seven—obviously a Summoner (a middle-aged man) and his Guardians.

The Summoner had Summoned an Ifrit to help them, which was helping them to a degree (they obviously had no idea the creatures had heat-resistant armor). The battle was happening on the far side of the area, towards the north end of the clearing, and it looked like one of the seven was already dead. Eden saw Freyra with them—likely the reason they'd had enough warning to defend themselves—as well as a girl who looked like the one from the Shadowterra who Anthony, Cloud, and Elena had befriended.

"Oh, no!" Aeris gasped.

A sudden extra weight on his other shoulder made Eden glance over at Carbuncle, so he asked, "Can you shield them, Carbuncle?"

" _I'm too far away—you'd need to be_ much _closer to them,_ " the Summon replied, sounding worried.

"Libby, stay with Aeris," the blond Turk immediately said. "Carbuncle, we'll get over there soon. Be ready to cast as soon as we're close enough."

" _Right,_ " Carbuncle agreed as Libby jumped into Aeris' arms.

"Warriors, let's give them a reprieve," Eden declared, and as he stepped forward, Koln, Sora, and Gamahri moved with him. Behind them, Karru, Hana, and Aeris followed more slowly.

It wasn't until the three warrior types hit and killed two or three each of the swarms of creatures that they realized they were being attacked from behind and some turned to face them. By then, Eden had launched himself over the first bunch of them and landed between the ones still attacking the other Summoner and the ones now attacking his fellow Guardians. As he moved to jump forward, he found himself being attacked from the side and had to divert, even as the claws of one creature dug deeply into the ground. It paused and looked down for a moment, then turned its attention back to Eden—

A furious roar literally shook the mountains, then the ground below the creature which had attacked Eden suddenly splintered apart as flames shot out from the ground. The creature was immediately burnt nearly to a crisp as a Dark Dragon surged out of the ground, swallowing the thing's remains as it shot into the sky—and tore apart a large section of the clearing in the process. The upward surge knocked everyone to the ground and sent Carbuncle flying, and in the next moment, he—and the other Summoner's group—were all falling into the ground with the broken debris of the once-solid ground.

FoW

Karru had managed to use her stealth ability and the data about where to aim to subtly kill several of the creatures that had gotten too close to Aeris and Hana, who were both entirely focused on healing by then. The creatures were _strong_ , she realized that now—while she'd figured some of the monsters she'd fought were more powerful than them, she could honestly say only something like a Sacred Beast or a Sin-level fiend would be stronger. What they were fighting now were stronger than she could manage on her own, though she was doing better against them than she'd have thought.

However, she didn't have any longer to ponder their strength as the dark, purple-ish black dragon similar in looks to a Sacred Beast surged out of the ground. How had it _even gotten_ underground? There was no time to think about that as it quickly spun back to the battle zone still surrounding the hole it had come out of, and she was afraid they'd have to fight _it_ , too. Worse, when it had emerged, a whole section of the clearing around there had fallen into what looked like a cavern underground, and Eden and the other Summoner's group had fallen with it.

Instead of attacking them, though, the monster crashed into the middle of the creatures and began shredding them with its claws, crushing them in its jaws, or casting magics—powerful ones—on them. It was obviously furious with the creatures who had injured it, but until it had landed, the only injury it had been sporting had been a fairly small, shallow cut on the bridge of its nose. Once it was on the ground, nearly all the creatures turned to attack it, and Sora, Gamahri, and Koln retreated to Hana's sides, panting faintly. Sora, beside Karru, rested a hand on her shoulder, which made the girl give her a shaky smile.

"What now?" she asked above the din of the battle between the dragon and the creatures, seeing Aeris and Hana trade worried looks.

"That's only going to last so long, and probably not long," Hana replied. "With Aeris kept in reserve for healing, my best option is going to be Odin or Bismarck. How are the rest of you holding up?"

"Fine for the moment," Koln said, and both Gamahri and Sora nodded. "You're both skilled healers, after all. What worries me is Eden and the other group."

"The ones who fell," Hana sighed.

"Eden and most of them are still alive," Aeris said. "One was already dead, and I felt one pass on within moments of the ground collapsing. I don't know what shape they're in, but our priority is to clean this up, then try to get them out from there."

"We fight. Odin will help," Gamahri stated, turning to look as the dragon let out a pained shriek and jumped into the air.

"It seems our time is up," Sora sighed. "Yes, Odin, please. He'll be a huge help against these numbers, even if they're immune to instant death."

Hana nodded as the now badly injured dragon flew a last pass over the creatures, using another flame attack which effectively cooked several creature's biological parts, then disappeared deeper into the mountain range. The remaining creatures turned back to them as more came up from the ocean-side cliff, and as the three warrior types turned back to the battle, Odin joined them, absolutely killing one with every swing of his blade. Karru returned to her guard duty, trying to keep the creatures back from Hana and Aeris, but with the new ones coming from the ocean, she couldn't do it.

Actually, she was amazed the two staff-wielders were so able to hold their own against the creatures. _What_ was with the numbers, though?

Then, she found herself being attacked by four at once, and while she nearly got away from two (they left minor cuts on her arms) and blocked one on her daggers, the last one suddenly came up over the one she'd blocked. In the next moment, she felt pain in her throat and realized she couldn't breathe. Falling to the ground slowly, she felt almost bemused as she heard someone yell her name and saw both Odin and Sora collide with the four surrounding her. She then realized all she could see was sky, a sky which was quickly darkening around her.

The last thing she heard as the darkness became complete was Hana's agonized voice as she yelled, "Karru, no!"

...

Suddenly, her vision filled with white, then green, and a motherly voice said quietly to her, _:Caution, Child of Wind. When you wake, you shall find yourself with a new power, one difficult to direct. Move away from your allies to call it forth.:_

 _:...Minerva?:_ she asked tentatively. A sense of agreement returned to her, so she asked, _:Why? How?:_

 _:My Ancient Sentinel gifted you with fragments of my essence. Some of their energy has absorbed into you, and the result has given you access to a Limit Break. Now, rise, Child of Wind. Your companions yet need you,:_ Minerva replied.

All at once, Karru's vision cleared and she found herself drawing in a deep breath, then blinking up at the sky as Bismarck finished solidifying above her. A moment later, lightning bolts shot off across the battlefield, and she sat up to stare at the number of the creatures who fell to the one attack. Hana was glowing with a brilliant light right then, her expression furious and full of pain, a pain shared by Aeris (even Libby, if she was reading the 'little record-keeper's' expression right), Koln, Sora, Gamahri, and Odin. The Summoner's sheer emotion was likely how she'd Summoned both Odin and Bismarck in active combat.

Energy was thrumming through her body, and still more of the creatures were coming from the ocean, which in turn had forced Odin and Sora away from her as they fought. Remembering Minerva's warning to move away from her companions, Karru pushed herself up and jumped onto one creature's head—making Sora stare in shock—then launched herself in the direction of the shore cliff where they were coming from. All she had to do was mentally 'touch' the energy in her body to make it explode outward from her—which caused her to stop in mid-air as circuit-board-like patterns drew an array around her in a globe, then sent out cutting blades of wind and lightning. Admittedly, she had to say she was impressed with her 'Limit Break', especially when she saw it slaughtering mass numbers of the creatures by apparently ignoring their armor, but she'd really rather not have died to get it.

Finally, after almost two minutes of bombarding the cliff and ocean below steadily, her Limit Break wore itself out and released her—and she realized belatedly that she was about to plunge into the ocean. Since she was sure not quite all the creatures were dead yet, that just meant she would die again!

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around her waist and halted her fall, making her look up at Odin in surprise. He returned her to the top of the cliff, on the top of a tall rock, then turned back to the cliff to take out the stragglers, though there were notably many fewer of them than there had been, and a few actually retreated back into the water. She turned to look for her companions as Bismarck hovered above them, seeing pain in Aeris' eyes as Hana ran for the edge of the hole, pausing only long enough to give Karru a relieved look.

She wasn't sure entirely what happened next, because she, Sora, Koln, and Gamahri all had to take out a couple more of those creatures, but had returned to Hana as she and Aeris had apparently retreated from the area of the hole.

Then most of the clearing collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and a loud rumbling.

FoW

Hana had been taken by surprise by the Dark Dragon emerging from the ground—she'd fought one before, and they weren't especially fond of being trapped in small spaces. Any cavern she'd seen one in before had been massive, yet she somehow didn't think the one it had emerged from was such, leaving the question of how it had gotten there. But the more pressing issues were the attack still in progress and the fact that Eden and Summoner Janero's party had just vanished into the same hole the Dragon had come out of. Even knowing Aeris could feel them still alive was little comfort as the battle progressed with Odin's help.

Then she saw Aeris stumble and turn pale, expression pained as she fell to her knees, so she jumped to guard her while she recovered—Karru was nearby, but had her hands full—asking as she blocked and shoved back one creature, "What's wrong, Aeris?"

"They're dying," she replied, and the pain crossed her gaze again. "One at a time, they're dying!"

Drawing in a sharp breath as she asked herself what was going on down there, Hana asked, "Can you still fight?"

After drawing in a few deep breaths, Aeris pushed herself up and steadied herself, saying, "You can't afford to have to protect me like that." She then added her own attack to the creature Hana was holding off in her defense, and it fell.

Three more jumped at them, so they both turned to fight them, though Aeris called Kirin to give them all healing (except Eden, who was out of range), as well as adding her own strong healing spell to it. Her timing was impeccable and saved both Gamahri and Sora a world of hurt. As the healers worked to defeat the three attacking them, one went down fairly quickly (it had already been injured by the Dragon, though), and the other two were being troublesome, putting them into a stalemate.

Then she heard Sora yell Karru's name and glanced over at her cousin-sister—and watched in stunned horror as she fell to the ground, one creature's blade in her throat. She didn't hear herself scream, "Karru, no!" as Sora and Odin killed the four creatures surrounding the girl, she just saw red and lit with brilliant light. As she attacked one of hers and Aeris' opponents with her staff and crushed its skull like it was butter, she also wasn't aware of having somehow Summoned Bismarck to the battlefield until the lightning burst—Bolt Storm—struck down almost half their attackers.

A few moments later, her gaze was drawn in shock to Karru, out over the ocean, as she lit with some sort of array in a globe around her and began obliterating the new creatures coming from the ocean. "That's an impressive Limit Break," Aeris commented in shock from beside her. "There are only three left alive down there. And I can sense Summons, three of them—one of ours and two Aeons. No, two just faded, one Aeon left."

Hana drew in a sharp breath and turned to run for the edge of the hole, pausing only long enough to give Karru a relieved look as Odin deposited her on a rock at the edge of the cliff. At the hole, Hana leaned over as far as she dared and yelled, "Eden?"

It was Cygnus who answered urgently, " _Away_ , _now, Hana_!"

She felt the ground beneath her sag, so gasped and pulled back quickly, seizing Aeris, who had followed her most of the way to the hole, and pulling her back towards the road near the cliff. That also placed them below Bismarck.

As the others began making their ways back to her sides, the battle over, a large area of the clearing collapsed in a massive roar and cloud of dust.


	76. 72-Memoria

Memoria

Heart in his throat, Eden tucked himself into a ball as tightly as he could, and for once was very thankful for his odd brand of luck (and he was pretty sure Carbuncle had given him shielding, too). He hit the sloped side of a rock, dropped to the ground at its base, found himself stuck between two boulders, and found another rock (a piece of the debris) dropping onto the tops of the two rocks much like a cap which shielded him from the worst of the collapse. The sheer lack of damage he took from such a fall strongly indicated Carbuncle's shielding, though it had already faded by then, so the damage had been extensive. By the time the rumbling of the falling debris died down, even in the dust cloud remaining, he was already wiggling his way out of his little shelter and searching for the groaning which told him others were still alive.

He didn't have to go far to find the Summoner, whose legs and one of his arms were stuck under boulders. As Eden examined the one pinning his legs down, feeling frantic to try to save the man, the Summoner wheezed out, "Don't...waste your...effort..." His voice was soft, weak, and pained, but his gaze was also showing a somewhat dazed expression—he was barely holding off shock. "Find the...others...Some...may have...survived..."

"But—" Eden began.

"My life is...over...The damage...is too great," the Summoner replied, holding his free hand over his side gently for a moment. A look showed the blond that the man had landed on a rock which had effectively impaled him, but it had been short enough to not be visible from the top. "Let me...know...if any...live..."

Swallowing as he realized he could do nothing for the man, he nodded and moved around him to the next place he could hear groaning from. Dust was beginning to settle by then, letting him vaguely see a fair-sized cavern with only a fairly small hole (comparatively) where the Dark Dragon had emerged from, and where they had all fallen from. The next ones he found were one crushed completely under a slab of rock, only a hand visible, and another who was three-quarters trapped under the same rock. The Al Bhed man was still vaguely breathing, but his gaze was blank and just staring straight up, seeing nothing. He was already as good as dead. After drawing in a pained breath, Eden drew his sword and cleanly beheaded him so his agony wouldn't extend.

When he turned away from them, it was to look up sharply as he heard a shriek—and saw one of those creatures launching itself at him. His instinct was to call, "Cygnus, Seraph!" even as his eyes widened in alarm. Thankfully, Cygnus turned out to be quite powerful, shooting out laser-like beams in white from a circle of lights which had centered around his tome. Eden felt Seraph's healing wash over him before she turned to Cygnus to give him support as he tried to target on the creatures without destabilizing the rest of the cavern.

With the situation somewhat managed, he kept looking for the other four in the group. The next one he came to was a woman laying on her side between two boulders, but a look showed him she hadn't been as lucky as him, and they hadn't protected her from the debris—they had targeted a sharp spire on her. As he reached her, she just gave her head a shake, and pain crossed his face as he drew his blade again.

"Thank...you...and...thank...Seraph...for...easing...my...pain..." she murmured as he lifted his sword.

"I will," he agreed, his tone as pained as his expression, then brought the blade down. As he rose, he was already dreading what he'd find when he reached Freyra.

The next of the group he found was a man who was already dead (the one who had already been dead on the surface), so he quickly moved past him. It took another minute to find Freyra, even as he winced at a particularly loud crash from where the battle was taking place not far away. She was laying on her back, breathing hard as she absently fingered the spike—spikes—pinning her down from mid-chest to her feet. She could only reach the one at mid-chest, and even with her eyes closed, it was obvious she was in pain.

"Freyra..." he called in a soft, pained tone, realizing she was in no better shape than the Summoner. His first thought was to do with her as he'd done with the other two who had been 'alive' before reaching her, but then he recoiled from the thought as he suddenly felt guilty about thinking of a friend, of his honorary sister, that way. How could he even think of doing something like that to her (1)?

Her eyes opened and turned to him—he could tell she was already fading, but it was a slow process. "Not...me..." she whispered, giving him a faint, sad smile. "I could...barely...save...Aria...Keep her...alive...Please..."

"But you're..." he tried to say, feeling tears in his eyes.

"You...knew...this would...happen...even...tually..." she answered, still giving him that faint, sad smile. "I have...no regrets...Honor...me...by...finishing...what I...began...Save Aria..."

Rubbing at his eyes to force away the tears, he drew in a shaky breath and said, "All right. Is she near here?"

The hand fingering the rock in her chest moved to the side to point weakly at a pile of rocks similar to his own shelter as she managed to say, "In..." Before she could say more, her hand flopped to the ground and the light left her eyes.

Eden wanted to start sobbing just then, but—he couldn't. He still had things to do, and at least one other person's life depended on it, so he forced himself up and to the pile of rocks to shove a few of the pieces aside. Once he had, he found the twelve-ish-year-old girl who he assumed was Aria laying unconscious on her side in the middle of a cluster of several boulders, the worst injury to her being what looked like a fairly minor head wound which was healing as he watched. He wondered if Seraph also had a version of an over-time heal like the Regen spell. Currently, her Songstress Dressphere—the same one Anthony, Riona, and Cloud had tested—was active, and it seemed it had offered her some unexpected extra shielding.

He reached into the shelter and grabbed Aria's wrist to pull her up through the opening he'd cleared and into his arms. Once he'd retrieved her, he thought of what he should do, and figured the best idea was to try taking her back to her Summoner—he'd asked to know if any of his Guardians were still alive, after all. With her in his arms, he made his way back to the Summoner, who was still barely alive, kneeling beside the man with her in his lap so the older man would be able to see her.

The Summoner's eyes opened as Eden said, "She's the only one, thanks to Freyra...She seems to be mostly fine."

A relieved sigh left the man's lips as he said, "My daughter...Aria...has survived." His eyes closed for a moment before he opened them again to meet Eden's shocked, golden gaze.

Before anything more could be said, there came a chilling shriek from off to the side, and Cygnus called urgently, "Eden! This creature is transforming!"

Looking up, Eden could see one of the creatures gathering pyreflies to itself as dark energy encased it and it began growing in size. "Oh, Hell," he muttered, laying Aria down and quickly rising as he actively looked around.

Most of the dust had settled, and the light from above was more than enough to see the number of Spiran pyreflies gathering in the area. At least three of the creatures were focal points for them, though only one was transforming so far—but the sheer number floating around was singularly worrisome. In addition, he realized a fair portion of the rock still above them was due to fall soon, and Cygnus was limited by the fact that the walls of the cavern were also weakened and crumbling—damaging them could trigger the ceiling to fall.

He really only had one option, and one task, if he expected to keep the rest of the rock from coming down on them. "Odin!" he called to the one whose Materia he kept. It only took a moment for the Summon to emerge and attack the fiend already forming, then to begin targeting the creatures Cygnus couldn't reach or couldn't attack. After all, Odin could be extremely precise in his targeting, something most Summons and Aeons had trouble with. Eden then took a few steps away from the Summoner and Aria, to a space barely large enough for the Summoner's dance once he'd shoved a few small stones aside.

As Yuna had told him over and over again, he _needed_ to be calm to send on the pyreflies, so he shoved everything else from his mind and began to dance.

Focus. It was one thing he'd always had.

So he danced, only aware of his surroundings enough to twist away from one of those creatures as it tried to attack him, and to vaguely note Odin following the creature to kill it. The pyreflies were dissipating rapidly, he could sense it as he danced, just as he could sense Odin release himself once all of the creatures in the cavern were dead and sense Seraph also return to him.

When the pyreflies had nearly all dissipated, he breathed a sigh and stopped, opening his eyes to glance around. The pyreflies were indeed nearly all gone, so he turned to face the Summoner again, heart breaking as Aria, who had woken while he'd been dancing, held her father's hand and wept. She was kneeling near his head, leaving space at his side for Eden.

Kneeling beside him, Eden asked, "Are you sure there's no chance?"

"None..." the man faintly agreed, then seemed to pause, gaze oddly thoughtful. "You are...Yuna's newest...apprentice?"

"Yes, I'm Eden," he agreed, wondering what the man wanted.

Pulling his hand from his daughter's, he reached up shakily for the red earring Eden wore, pulling it gently from his ear. The blond blinked as the older Summoner laid it on his chest, then reached for the blue one in his own ear. As he pulled it free, Eden realized what was happening, what the man was doing, and sat frozen in shock as the older man lifted the blue earring to Eden's ear.

It was only when the Summoner's earring settled in the blond's ear that he unfroze and asked in alarm, "Are you sure?" as he reached up to touch it.

"You...have...earned...it..." the man softly gasped out, clearly fading by then. "Take...care...of...Aria...for...me...Plea..."

As he drifted off, Aria cried, "No, Dad! No!" Her sobbing instinctively caused Eden to wrap his arms tightly around her, holding her as she wept.

"Eden?" Hana's voice called from above.

" _Away_ , _now, Hana_!" Cygnus yelled back to her urgently, then turned to Eden, resting a hand on his shoulder. "We must go, _now_. The remainder shall not hold."

"But my Dad—!" Aria began, trying to pull away from Eden.

"He's gone," the blond replied, voice full of pain. He forcibly tightened his grip on her and said, "Cygnus, let's go!"

"No!" Aria shrieked, but in the next moment, Cygnus had seized Eden and the three were airborne.

They had only barely cleared the debris field as the entire cavern collapsed in on itself, and both Eden and Aria could only stare, pale and drawn, as Cygnus carried them up above the collapsing cavern. It had been a _very_ close call.

In the dust the collapse had roused, it had taken Cygnus a moment to find the others, and only was able to because Bismarck released a massive amount of energy to create a gentle rain. The rain began settling the dust, but Bismarck's accompanying light-burst from the spines on her back drew Cygnus to the general area where the rest of Hana's group was waiting for them. By the time he landed and gently placed Eden on his feet about ten feet from the others, the dust was already settling. Odin (Auron) was vaguely visible standing on the edge of the ocean-side cliff, facing the ocean in a clear, wary guard stance and Bismarck was above them, shielding them from the rain.

Once Eden had his feet under him, he gently set Aria down and kept an arm around her shoulders as she turned to him to cry on his shoulder. Cygnus sighed faintly, sadly, and returned to Eden, knowing his Summoner was no longer in tangible danger. The blond Turk-Summoner felt stunned and numb, still processing everything and on the verge of breaking down as well—even though the other deaths pained him, Freyra's was personal. She was one of his adoptive sisters, one of the Turks he was closest to, and her death felt like he was losing his mother, Al, and Verdot all over again.

 _"I have no regrets,"_ she'd said.

It was true that the Turks would start dying around him, and that they already had—while he hadn't known Maur and Alvis well, Judet and Verdot's deaths had been a blow to him, one he'd shared with others. Otherwise, his greatest suffering to that point had been nearly losing Kariya and Felicia—especially the latter, who wasn't even a Turk. Freyra's death was a blow, and he couldn't pretend it wasn't. But, he also remembered what it was like to lose his own mother and brother, and he truly felt for Aria, leaving him caught between processing, wanting to mourn his own loss, and trying to be strong for her. He didn't even know if the girl had other family he could leave her with, but...even if she did, could he bring himself to go against her father's last request for him to take care of her? And he was sure it had been literal, not figurative.

"Eden!" Hana gasped as she ran to him, reaching up with a shaky hand to touch the blue earring he now wore. Her expression was as pained as his—she always felt everything strongly, and it was only her training with Yuna which kept her from breaking down at bad times. "What happened? The others?"

He shook his head. "Aria is—" He had to pause and draw in a deep breath as his voice broke on just those two words. "She's the only survivor. Her father was the Summoner...He—replaced my earring with his own. That...and telling me to take care of Aria for him...were the last..."

The other Summoner's eyes widened before she reached forward to hug both of them tightly. It was all Eden could take, and rested his head on Hana's shoulder to cry silently. Aeris also joined them, mostly hugging him, but also with an arm around Aria's shoulders, and the others quietly, sadly moved into a circle around them. Libby climbed over to Eden from Aeris' shoulder, and wiggled her way between Eden, Aria, and Hana, offering comfort as well. Bismarck let out a mourning, haunting whistle which caused them all to feel chills and brought them to silent tears if they weren't already crying, then fell silent, still hovering above them to shield them from the rain. Even Odin deemed the area safe by then, took his fayth form, and joined their circle, his gaze sad and somewhat resigned.

For a long time, they all just stood like that, until Aria and Eden had both mostly stopped crying. Slowly releasing them, Hana stepped back and said quietly, "We need to move away from here. When we get to Fjallheim, we can ask some of the townspeople to come retrieve the bodies to be taken care of properly, but for now...both for our mental states and for our safety, we need to keep going."

Eden nodded and drew a shaky breath. "We'll have to find another place to stop for the night. Aria, where did you stop when you headed this way?"

"Uh..." she murmured dazedly, leaning most of her weight on him. "From here...I think there was a stop about four hours' walk further up...?"

"It'll be a bit long, but it's manageable. And it's the best we've got," Koln said. He rubbed his eyes and said, "Sora, you and I can take the lead with a healer, and Gamahri and Karru can take the rear with the other—I don't think either Eden or Aria are actually up for a fight right now."

"Fair enough," Sora agreed, then faced Aeris questioningly, who nodded.

"I can manage, even though Freyra...She was a friend, and we traveled together for a long time, so..." She paused, then shook her head. "But, I wasn't as close to her as Eden, and every time someone dies, I feel it anyway, so I can still function. I'd rather have my mind on something else right now, too. Mourning is for safety, not here."

Sora and Koln nodded, and Auron said, "If you intend to move forward, I shall clear your path to an extent and keep guard on the ocean side of the path, in case those creatures return."

"Thank you, Auron," Hana agreed.

"What happened to the Dark Dragon?" Eden asked quietly as Sora and Aeris joined Koln with the intent to lead the party further up the path. They halted at the question.

Sora turned back to him and said, "It devoured several of the creatures, suffered some fairly extensive damage from their—claws—and fled into the deep mountains. It did us no harm, and in fact, it gave us time to regroup and prepare for battle again. Hana had time to summon her Aeons, and with their help, we survived with relatively little harm, though I believe Karru owes you extensive thanks for providing her with a Final Attack Materia."

"Yeah, thanks," Karru added tersely, her expression haunted. "I can't imagine what it would have been like for everyone if I had..."

Eden's lips quirked and he shook his head, realizing when he focused on her that there was blood smeared and drying on her neck. "This's why I gave it to you, Karru, and you already thanked me. I'm just glad you weren't in the area which collapsed, or even _that_ couldn't have saved you." The girl drew in a shaky breath and nodded.

"We go, then," Gamahri said as he rested a hand on Karru's shoulder.

"Yeah, if Aeris is with you at the front, then Hana is with us at the back," Karru agreed, and Hana nodded.

Koln and Sora took the lead with Aeris close behind them. Eden and Aria followed them, his arm still around the younger girl's shoulders, and Gamahri, Karru, and Hana followed them. Until the first battle which came up behind them, the Summoner walked with her arm around Karru's shoulders as well. Auron went ahead, and after about an hour, he returned and dropped out of sight to keep pace with them about halfway between their path and the ocean below, back in his Odin form. Bismarck also followed them to keep them dry until the rain stopped, then dissipated and returned to Hana. Auron hadn't left much on the path, but enough monsters were still in the area to require both the front and rear guards to fight a number of times on the way to the next place where they could rest, which was just past the turn inland.

They didn't stop to eat until they reached it, where they set up camp for the night, ate, and turned in, Auron finally returning to Hana. Normally, Koln would have shared with Eden (and Libby), but that night, Aria stayed with him and Koln joined Gamahri. All of them were mostly quiet, the most noise coming from Aria as she softly wept on Eden's shoulder again for a large part of the night. It was also that night when he realized Carbuncle had been sent into a recovery state preventing him from summoning the creature again for nearly three days. Morning saw them setting out at a slow, mostly steady pace, in much the same marching positions as the afternoon before—though the others quickly stepped back and let Eden fight if he decided to vent on a group of monsters. His doing so was random, but it was also obvious he was trying to release some of his feelings when he did it, so they left him to it.

By the time they got to Fjallheim, it was nearly time for the evening meal, and the people at the Inn only had to take one look at them to realize something was wrong. They were ushered in, given meals, and rooms were prepared for them. That night and the next day passed in something of a daze for all of them, and morning the following day felt like it had come too soon. Aeris and Karru dragged Aria with them to look around the town, none of them especially cheerful, but at least not focused on what had happened two days ago. Them taking Aria with them left Eden alone (other than Libby), which also left him uncertain about what to do next.

Finally, he sighed and pulled out his PHS to call Tseng. It was the thing he was most dreading, and the thing he most needed to do—let the other Turks know one of their number had died. He'd been tempted to call Rude, and probably would have if that wouldn't actually have made him feel worse with the reminder that he still had family, of a sort, to turn to when it didn't seem so far that Aria did. As such, the only thing he could manage right then was Tseng, who would have the responsibility of letting the others know. He realized right then how much he loathed being the bearer of bad news.

When Tseng answered the call, it was with, "I hope you're not in trouble again, Eden." His tone was notably wary, and produced an expression of wryly amused sorrow from Eden.

He drew in a shaky breath, then said, "No, the 'trouble's' already passed. But that's not why I'm calling."

"Then why? What happened?" the older Turk asked, still sounding wary.

"Freyra...is dead," he answered, his tone soft and pained.

A moment of stunned silence came from the other end of the line, then in an equally pained tone, Tseng asked, "How did she...?" Eden explained what had happened, and when he finished, the Wutain was quiet for almost an entire minute before saying, "Thank you for telling me, Eden." His voice was still quiet, and it was obvious he was struggling on his end. "You did the best you could, and—honestly, that you were able to save the same girl she sacrificed herself for, that means more than you can imagine. To all of us. I'll let the others know what happened. And Eden..."

When he drifted off, the blond asked shakily, "Yeah?"

"Take care of yourself. You were closer to her than you were to nearly everyone else who has died lately, so I know this is easily as hard on you as it is for me. I don't want to see anything happen to you," Tseng told him, tone heart-felt.

"I couldn't...not now that I'm responsible for her...Aria...at least until she's actually ready to go out on her own," Eden sighed, rubbing his eyes. "It's just...it never gets easier to lose people you care about..."

"...No, it never does," the other Turk sighed resignedly. "And you notably already have trouble dealing with deaths. That's why I'm so worried about you right now."

The words caused Eden to give a faint, wry smile, but he admitted, "If I didn't have anything to anchor me, like someone now in my care, I'd probably be in a lot more danger, so I don't blame you for worrying. In its own right, the _best_ thing which could have happened to me right then was being given charge of Aria—it returns me to the mindset of 'taking care of my brother', and...Yeah, it hurts to lose Freyra. I'll be dealing with that for a long time. But _because of_ Freyra, I now have someone else to take care of...Her legacy, I guess? It gives me something to hold onto so I can keep moving forward, so I have a _reason_ to keep moving forward right in front of me."

"Aeris isn't enough of one?" Tseng asked in faint amusement.

"She doesn't need me to 'take care of her', and I'm not responsible for her well-being until further notice," Eden answered in a rather dry tone, giving his head a small shake.

"Are you _sure Aria needs_ someone if she was a Guardian on a Pilgrimage with her Summoner?"

"Her father. And yes. He wouldn't have asked me to take care of her for him if she didn't still need someone to do that for her. She just likely won't need 'care' for too much longer."

A silence fell again, then Tseng said, "Since you've called me, what have you found out about those creatures so far?" Eden gave him all the details he had, then Tseng sighed faintly and asked, "Does Libby have any records she can send to Reeve to give him more to work with? He's trying to figure out if there's a way to re-program them, since it's likely 'making peace' won't work. His central theory is that, if they're anything at all like the Cait Siths and Libby, they should be able to have their programming modified, maybe even from outside."

"I can tell her to send him everything she's recorded about them," Eden offered. "I'll have her do that later today, even."

"All right. Have you called Rude or Balto yet?"

"No. Talking with you was going to be painful enough, and I don't think I can handle rehashing the story again right away."

"Fair enough...I'll let them know what happened, and they can call you. Don't avoid them when they do, for your _own_ sake."

"...Okay."

"I'll let you go, then," Tseng sighed faintly, and hung up.

Once he'd hung up the PHS, Eden realized he currently mostly just felt numb and lethargic, like nothing felt real, so he just sighed and sat where he was for a bit, unable to think of anything to do.

 **Notes:**

(1) No, Eden doesn't realize this is hypocritical, and that his only reason for resisting it is because he cares about her, whereas he didn't personally care about anyone else he's had to kill in the story to date. Basically, he's in the 'feeling sorry for himself' phase of realizing Freyra isn't going to be part of his life any longer.


	77. 73-Aria

Aria

Left to his own devices for most of the day as Libby wandered in and out, Eden began wandering around the Inn absently, part of him still feeling like he'd failed to save them. Even knowing he couldn't have didn't make the feeling go away, and the closer the relationship between him and any of the dead made him feel it more strongly. Seeing Aria's reaction to her father's death had made it worse, like he was looking at himself and Al when their mother died, all over again. By the time he made it back to his own room that evening, he wasn't really in any better shape, so sat on the bed, leaning on the headboard, and tugged the earring from his ear to stare down at it.

Several times with the red one, he'd done the same, but it startled him to see blue this time. Some of the bead patterns were inverted, there were more beads, and there was the stone at the bottom of it, what Yuna had called 'amulet stone'. It was supposed to be protective, but not from physical danger, from spiritual and emotional danger. The man—whose name he didn't even know—had given him _his own_ Summoner's earring, meaning he had been promoted, whether he was ready or not. The worst part was that he couldn't actually refuse it, or just not take the role—not only did he no longer _have_ an apprentice's earring, but he also couldn't bring himself to simply refuse one of the man's two last 'wishes'.

The door opened then and Aria stepped inside hesitantly, so he beckoned her in before returning the earring to its place. As she moved over to the bed to sit on the edge of it beside him, he asked quietly, "What do you think about this?"

"This?" she asked uncertainly, so he tapped the earring he wore. She shook her head and said, "It was my father's, but...he _gave_ it to you. It's like...because he passed it on to someone he thought was worthy, maybe a part of him is still around? I'd rather think that than lose him completely..."

Eden sighed faintly and asked, "You _do_ realize _you_ are his true legacy, right, Aria? You're literally a part of him which will go on living for a long, long time. As long as you're around, and as long as you remember him, you'll never actually be completely without him."

"But it's not the same..." she replied miserably.

After a silence, Eden agreed, "I know. All the rest of my birth family is dead, and I remember them...my mother, my younger brother...even my idiot father, who abandoned us when we were, like, three and four years old."

Aria gave a faint, sad chuckle. "You, too? Well, I was an only child, so...there were my parents, and my uncle's family..."

"...What happened to them?"

"My mother died in an accident at work—a lift of building supplies snapped and fell on her. I guess the way my father died is a little...poetic irony? Anyway, I was seven then. My father had become a Summoner not long before, and that was when the Sundering started in full force, so he was going to really dangerous places all the time. He left me with my mom's brother and his family on the Shadowterra...And they died there, at Erva Eyja during the fiend attack, but I'm not sure the actual cause, just that even my two cousins didn't survive. Since things got better in the world after that, it was safe for my father to take me again..."

Remembering Tseng's comment about a Summoner's Guardian not needing 'care', Eden asked, "So if he took you with him as one of his Guardians, do you actually _need_ someone to 'take care of you', or was he just...being a 'good father'?"

With a wry smile, she told him, "I'm pretty good in combat, but that doesn't mean I know how to take care of myself. I'm only thirteen since last month, and my family were all really protective of my cousins and me, so none of us really knew...or 'know', in my case...how to take care of ourselves. Freyra was teaching me some practical survival things while we traveled, but I'm nothing like ready to go off on my own...She showed me _that_ plenty well. But even though she was protective of me, like everyone else, her protectiveness translated into teaching me things I'd need to know if I was ever on my own. I don't think she meant 'on my own' because everyone was dead, though..."

Eden managed his own faint, wry smile. "I _know_ she didn't mean it that way." His expression turned pained for a moment before he added, "But that's how it ended up happening, and we have to deal with it now. Both Freyra and your father told me to keep you safe, take care of you...I had to take care of my younger brother for years, so I'll do my best, but I'm sure not going to be like a parent to you. I'll probably just keep doing what Freyra was for you, just...in a different way. You won't find yourself on your own, with no help or support, until you're ready to go off on your own."

There was a silence, then Aria asked quietly, "Are you actually okay with that? I mean, you don't know me, but I've sort of just been ditched with you...You're busy, right? I'd be a burden to you..."

Sighing, Eden gave his head a shake and informed her, "I've been in your position before, and I know it hurts. I did some really stupid things because of that, and when people I care about die, I _don't_ take it well. Rather than you being a burden, _you're_ a _reason_ for me to keep moving forward, because you _need_ me to be there for you. I can't afford to just crash or anything when someone else is depending on me. Back when my mother died, my reason to move forward was my brother. Now, it's you. Whether I know you or not right now, nothing will change that fact, or the effect—the _positive_ effect—it has on me, and we'll get to know each other as we go."

For a moment, Aria kept staring down at her hands, then looked up at him with a small hopeful smile. "I'm really not a burden to you?"

He blinked, then reiterated, "You're not. Why are you so...afraid you would be?"

Again, the girl was quiet for a few long moments, then she said, "Once, when I was six, Dad suddenly got really sick, and my family was afraid I would get it, too—a lot of people were getting sick and dying from a...well, they called it a plague...then. It was mostly in the big cities—Bevelle, New Zanarkand, Luca—so the kids were checked by doctors, then sent to smaller towns if they showed no traces of the disease. We were told everyone had volunteered to take on a kid or two until the plague had mostly run its course and we could be returned to our parents. My mom showed signs of carrying it, so she couldn't leave, but I don't think she actually ever got sick."

Aria paused, then sighed. "I stayed with a family where there was a father, an older daughter, and a boy about my age—their mom had died years before in a freak storm. It wasn't that it was bad, really, because Besaid is a nice place and the school was actually really awesome. But the father kept saying and doing little things to let me know he didn't want me there, I was a burden, I should be doing a lot more than just the chores he assigned me. His daughter kept stopping me from doing more, and even told me to just not be there most of the time, so I was usually out at the beach or whatever, but it didn't stop him from making me...feel unwanted."

"What chores were you doing at six?" Eden asked in mild surprise. Something about the story also set off warning bells in his mind—he wondered exactly what the daughter of the family had suffered, and mentally thanked her profusely for protecting Aria from whatever it was.

"Washing supper dishes—she did the cooking pots and pans, though—taking out the garbage every other week, and weeding the garden a bit. Since the garbage went out every week, it usually was only about half full, and mostly was pretty light. The son took it out the weeks opposite me and had to dry the dishes and help weed the garden, too," she replied easily.

"And you shouldn't have been doing more at that age," Eden agreed. "I'm glad his daughter stopped you. Did you ever thank her?"

"Yes, several times," Aria agreed, gaze turning sad. "We kept exchanging letters after I left...Until one time, her father wrote back to me that she had killed herself. That was only about a month after my mom died, so...I really...didn't have a good time then. I miss her, too."

"I see..." the blond sighed softly. "In other words, everyone you knew who could have taken care of you, and who would have, has ended up dying."

"...Pretty much," Aria agreed softly, rubbing her eyes. A small, pained smile formed on her face as she added, "I guess now there's no one else for me to lose."

The words alarmed Eden and made him ask, "Are you saying you don't plan to ever care about anyone else, for the rest of your life?"

Looking up at him in surprise, she asked, "Shouldn't I? If everyone dies from knowing me—"

" _No one_ is dying ' _from knowing you_ '," he cut her off sharply. "Maybe it feels like that right now, but that's not the case. The daughter of the family was already being abused, and she told you what she did to protect you from suffering her fate. When she ended her own life, it was because she couldn't handle what her own father was doing to her anymore. I won't try to guess what the abuse was, but that's still the situation. It was going on before you got there, and kept happening after you left—it _never had anything_ to do with _you_. Your mother died in an accident at work. Accidents happen all the time in workplaces and ordinary life. That was just circumstance, and again had _nothing_ to do with _you_.

"Your uncle's family dying was thanks to the Sacred Beast who turned the attack meant for it on the Shadowterra instead—again, it had _nothing_ to do with _you_ , and _a lot_ of people you didn't know and had never met _also_ died then. And your father and fellow Guardians dying was actually the Dark Dragon's fault, and if it hadn't been for Freyra, _you_ 'd just as easily have _joined_ them. Freyra _chose_ to save you at her own expense—that was _her choice_ , and she would hate you forever if you effectively _stop living_ after she gave _everything_ to keep you safe. Everyone _else's_ deaths _literally_ have _nothing_ to do with _you_. Thinking it's your fault is survivor's guilt, and you _need_ to stop that _now_ , because it's _not_ healthy."

"Sounds pretty deep," Karru commented from the door as Aria gaped at Eden in shock. "I don't really remember feeling that for any deaths except Tarric's. But, I don't really remember my parents, and no one else I really care about has died, either." She touched her throat where she'd been stabbed a couple days ago and said, "I'm pretty sure Hana would have felt it—really strongly—if I didn't have Final Attack and Revive." As Karru was talking, Libby trotted into the room and hopped onto the bed and climbed into Eden's lap, so he absently petted her.

The blond Summoner-Turk gave Karru a sad smile and agreed, "She probably would have."

"Thanks for putting that into perspective for me," Karru added. "I kept thinking—it's a little different—but, I kept thinking I was too weak to help you, to have saved everyone, and I couldn't even keep a proper guard on Hana and Aeris. I've been thinking a lot about why I'm even here when I'm a liability. But almost everything you just said was luck or chance, it wasn't things we had any control over, and especially those creatures are even dangerous to the others. The other Guardians have a lot more experience than I do, but they nearly died more than once, too, so I wasn't actually as far off them, but what happened, now that I'm thinking more critically about it—those creatures figured I was the weak link, so they _targeted_ me. I was the _only_ one of us who had to fight _four_ of them at once, and all the others capped at three."

"And that led to you dying, thankfully in a way Final Attack could reverse," Eden finished with a small nod.

"Yeah," Karru agreed, then looked at Aria with a faintly quirky smile. "Dying _hurts_ , and being brought back is disorienting. I'd rather not go through it again, or see anyone else go through it. Sadly, even Final Attack and Life spells have limits—they can't save everyone. But that also means the ones who are still alive have to keep living, otherwise, what's the point? And you're _way_ too young to give up yet."

"Says a fourteen-year-old to a thirteen-year-old," Eden put in, legitimately amused. "So, any other advice, 'Grandma' Karru?"

Karru blushed as Aria giggled faintly, then the half-Al Bhed said, "I wasn't trying to say that, like I'm so much older, you know."

"Either way, you're right," the blond told her. "Just work on your delivery next time."

"Okay," the younger girl giggled. She then sighed. "Still...This was about as bad as it could get..."

"We'd _all_ be dead if it was 'as bad as it could get'," Eden said dryly. Sticking her tongue out at him, Karru turned and left the room.

Aria paused, then rose and faced Eden to say, "Thank you for—getting me to think about the people who have died differently. I miss them, but...I don't really feel as strongly that it's my fault anymore. And...I'm sorry about your loss, too. You were closer to Freyra, I think, and so far, you haven't had time to mourn her because...you set that aside for me. Eden, I think you need to mourn her properly, even if I'm here...It's something we can share that way. Okay?"

His lips quirked faintly in amusement, then he informed her, "I don't deal with death well. I'll get there, it just might not happen for a bit." He paused, then added, "But when I'm ready, we can share it." She nodded with a small, sad smile, then quietly left the room.

As he was wondering what to do next, he got a text message, so pulled out his PHS and checked it. The message was from Rude: _Tseng just finished telling us all. How are you holding up?_

He wanted to say he was fine, but he knew he wasn't, not really. Even though he'd been pushing it away, it hurt. Really, since he didn't have any books there, Aria was a diversion, something he could use the way he normally would the books, but that didn't actually make it better. Finally, he sighed and replied: _I watched her die. It hurts._

 _It does, more for you since you were there. But all of us, when we see one of ours die, we all feel like...like we should have been able to do more, to save them. That's how you feel, too, right?_

The reply made Eden give his PHS screen a bemused expression. _All Turks feel that way about a loss they were present for?_

 _We do. Because we're so close, because we're family and our survival depends on one another, if we can't save a fellow Turk, we intrinsically react to the thought that we failed the same person—or people—counting on us. Even when we logically know we couldn't have done anything, we're losing a sibling, or a cousin, or whatever...that we lost them because we weren't skilled enough. How many times does a Turk have to go through that with another Turk before it actually changes? I honestly don't know—I haven't reached a limit yet._

Rude's explanation somehow surprised Eden, and it brought tears to his eyes. _I do that with virtually everyone I've ever met, though...But I don't think I realized how strongly the Turks would feel another Turk's death before. No, that's wrong...I don't think I realized how much more strongly they would feel it if they personally saw it. Reno and Kariya have seen Turks' deaths since I joined, but other than the mourning circle because of the number of losses, I haven't seen how they dealt with it..._

There was a long pause before Rude's response arrived, saying: _Eden, the death of a loved one in abstract, at a distance, always hurts less than the tangible death of a loved one, right in front of you. It has no choice but to be stronger. Think about your own losses, the ones you personally witnessed and the ones you didn't—of people in your past who you knew well—and compare the degree of hurt. Also, the abstract normally takes time to sink in and become reality...When the person dies right in front of you, the impact is immediate and can't go into the abstract form. In your case...I think you force it all into abstract until you're ready to deal with it, though..._

With a faint chuckle at the last point—it was exactly what he did—the blond thought back. His mother's death, he'd seen. Maes Hughes' he hadn't. Both had hurt, a lot, but in all honesty, it had hurt more to see his mother die than to find out about Hughes' death later. Not because he'd been closer to his mother emotionally—Maes had been filling the role of a father to him, to some degree, and would have probably taken over the role completely if he hadn't died—but because he hadn't been there for it.

Al...He didn't even want to think about that. Or Nina. He hadn't 'seen' her death, but had seen the mess Scar had left behind, and it had hurt him horribly. That had made it tangible, and it had been like losing his mother all over again. He wasn't going to touch the aspect of her soul. On the other hand, when he'd been sent to Gaia, everyone he'd ever known had become 'dead' to him, and it had taken him _months_ to even process the fact, let alone react to it. He sort of thought part of his breakdown when he'd told the Turks the truth about his origins had come from finally accepting Winry's, Teacher's, Mustang's, Hawkeye's—and _everyone's_ —deaths. He hadn't 'seen' any of their deaths, so it had vastly changed his immediate reaction...or lack thereof.

 _I think I know what you mean. It took me...basically until that breakdown I had to actively accept the loss of everyone from my home...Before then, there was really nothing tangible showing they had died—to me, at least—they just...weren't there anymore. For my purposes, I think that made it easier at the time. But with my mother, Nina, or Freyra...Those were ones which all hurt right away, ones I felt, and feel, very strongly, even if I try to shove it into abstract. And of course, I have the bad luck to be completely without a library when Freyra dies..._

 _No abstract? That's probably a good thing, in it's own right. But what about Libby? Can't she access anything we have in Reeve's mainframe so you can read?_

"I could, too," Libby said. She had been reading the discussion while he'd been resting his PHS on his leg.

"Eavesdropper," he said wryly to her, faintly amused in spite of himself. "But no. You don't have access to all of the data in places like the Turks' library and the general Shinra library and things like that."

"Don't I?" she asked dryly. "I have a file system just like any other computer, which means anything I ever recorded made two copies, one which uses only a tiny portion of my background memory and one which uses my main memory banks. Even if you, or Genesis, or I, or Reeve, erased the copy in my main memory banks, _no one_ has ever bothered to erase, or tell me to erase, the backup. That means any library you let me into so I could copy data is stored in my backup memory. I have all of the data from every library in Bevelle, too."

"...Backup memory?" Eden asked her in bemusement. "What does _that_ mean?"

"Do you remember that time you watched Karru recover data from the computer in Bevelle Temple's library? There was that 'Recycle Bin', and there was that 'coin sign Recycle Bin' in the system, and even though no files at all were in the Recycle Bin and the thing you were looking for wasn't in the main system, Karru went to the 'coin sign Recycle Bin' and found it there. She then restored it for you so you could read it. I have that, too," Libby explained. "Erasing things from my 'Recycle Bin' doesn't erase them from my 'coin sign Recycle Bin'."

"...Oh," Eden blinked at her. He then told Rude in a text message: _Libby just told me she's got records of anything she ever recorded in a backup trash bin, not just whatever Reeve has in his mainframe right now. I might try it, but it's really not the same as having a book in your own two hands, so...We'll see if it has the same effect, I guess._

Just as Rude's answer came back to him ( _I wish you luck, then. Take care._ ), his PHS rang—and he saw Balto's number on it. First, he pinched the bridge of his nose, then answered on the third ring with, "Somehow, I'm surprised you're calling, even though I know I shouldn't be."

Balto snorted and asked him, "Are you thinking something foolish like that we'd hate or avoid you because you couldn't save her?"

Sighing, the younger man muttered, "More like that I just don't deserve it..."

That caused the older man to sigh. "Do you realize what you just said out loud to me, Little Brother?"

"...What do you mean?" Eden asked slowly, realizing he'd been heard.

"That's why I turned up the volume on my PHS," Balto informed him. "People who are grieving often do and think very stupid things. We all know that, and deaths in the family always hurt. But Eden, Tseng told us she died because she chose to save that girl you managed to pull out of there, and that's also not an uncommon way for our siblings and cousins and so on to die. She knew when she did it what her fate would most likely be, and she did it anyway, which means that girl meant the world to her. I think Tseng called her Aria?"

"Yeah, that's her name. She doesn't have any other living family, that's why her father asked me to take care of her for him," Eden explained quietly.

There was a momentarily startled pause, then the older Turk said, "That makes what I'm about to say even more true, then."

"What?"

"Eden, Freyra cared—deeply—about Aria. She was probably like a younger sister to her. That's how we all think of it, anyway, if she went so far out of her way to save her. But she wasn't quite able to finish the job, and that task fell to _you_ when Freyra realized she wouldn't be able to follow through." Balto paused, then went on in a quieter, heart-felt tone, "Eden, even if you couldn't save Freyra, you _did_ save our new honorary _sister_ , another child fitting in the same category as our Academy kids. You didn't 'fail' at all, and saving Aria is proof that Freyra's death _meant_ something—meant _everything_ to all of us who will now be able to _raise_ that sister she died for. And Eden, if Aria has no other family, she's _ours entirely_ , our sister and Freyra's legacy. Cissnei especially will probably attach herself to Aria very quickly. You may as well consider her a Turk now."

For a long moment, the blond just stared into space, until a single tear rolled down his cheek with the realization of what Balto was saying. It wasn't that he hadn't already allocated Aria as 'Freyra's legacy', it was that he hadn't taken it that far—but like Balto, he was pretty sure Tseng _had_ , which meant _all_ the Turks had. Aria wasn't just his, she was _all of theirs_ , and even if she had no more blood family, she was going to find herself with a very large extended family in the Turks. From that perspective, Freyra had left them a precious gift, something none of them would ever be able to replace—another member of the family. She would never replace Freyra, but no one would ever forget Freyra as long as Aria was with them.

"Eden?" Balto's worried voice broke into his thoughts. "You okay?"

"Yeah...yeah...Sorry, I...had gotten as far as realizing the part about how she fit in with Freyra, but I...couldn't process the rest, how she fit in, not just with me, but with _all_ of the Turks. I still...keep seeing Freyra die in my mind's eye and..."

"You can't go any further to realize all the rest of what Aria _is_ ," the older man finished, his tone sad. "I know. That's why we don't like leaving mourning Turks alone, because processing the really important parts is hard when you can't help but blame yourself when it's fresh. We've all...been there. You helped Reno admirably when he was caught in that loop...Now it's our turn to help you through Freyra's death. Our pain aside, yours is worse—we all know that, and we want... _need_ to see you recover. Like all our number, all our family."

That time, the blond managed an honest smile as he replied, "Thanks, Balto. Between you and Rude, I think I can start to work through it now."

Breathing a relieved-sounding sigh, the older man said, "Good. I'm glad. When are you taking our new sister to New Midgar?"

"I'm not sure of the exact timing, but our next stop is Frelsa, then there. We need time here, though, so...We'll probably be here for awhile."

"All right. Let Tseng know when you're on your way so he can update us."

"I will. Thanks."

They both hung up, and Eden actually felt better than he had. It would be a long time before Freyra's death stopped hurting, but...just maybe he wouldn't need to force it into a complete abstract this time?


	78. 74-Falling into Place

Falling into Place

The next few days were a blur to Eden, one he largely spent with Aria if only because one trip to look around the town was quite good enough for her. The only other incident he recalled was finding Karru one day—he wasn't sure which one—as she attacked a tree near the edge of town. What drew his attention was how angry she was while she did it, and how she kept asking—herself or no one in particular, he wasn't sure—"Why am I so weak?"

What he was sure she was doing was pushing herself too hard, a fact proven when she collapsed, panting hard and clutching at her leg in clear pain. As she started to push herself back to her feet, he caught her shoulder and said tiredly, "Sit down and let me check you for injuries."

"But I need to get stronger, or—" she began.

"There's always someone stronger than you," he told her dryly. "There's no such thing as such absolute skill or power that you'll _never_ be overpowered by an opponent. Even my teacher, who I've never been able to beat in a fight, met her match once."

While the words seemed to annoy her, she did sit and let him use Sense on her to check for her injuries. He sighed when he found several, all of them torn muscle from what she'd been doing earlier—what she'd likely been doing since they got to Fjallheim. As he healed her, he said, "Karru, you're pushing yourself too hard and damaging your muscles. By doing so, and by not giving them time to repair themselves after you've damaged them, you're effectively weakening them and making them less able to handle stress and strain. If you keep doing it, they'll heal more and more slowly, keeping you out of commission longer and making healing spells not work so well."

"But if I don't train more—" Karru began to say, and he knew where she was going.

"No," he told her, meeting her gaze evenly. "I don't think you realize what it means to be the one chosen for guard duty on the people we _need_ to keep alive at all costs. You weren't put in that position because you're weak, Karru—I was originally the guard, and I wouldn't have given it to you unless I knew you were _able_ to do it. It seems like it's boring, useless, and pointless when nothing's happening, right?"

"It _is_!" she glared at him. "You're all trying to protect me, still, and I can't keep..." As she drifted off, it was into something like helpless sorrow.

"...I'm normally Rufus Shinra's personal guard," Eden said quietly, making her look up at him in surprise. "He's our leader, and he's someone we currently need to keep alive. I'm the only one of the Turks who can effectively keep up with him, the only one he lets close to him, and the only one—besides Genesis, his other regular guard—who has proven able to keep him in one piece, regardless of the circumstances and danger. Yeah, a lot of the time I spend with him is pretty ordinary and boring, but when the shit hits the fan, it falls to me to keep him alive and as unharmed as I can."

He paused to let her assess the words, then said, "One time, the Midgar on the planet Gaia was attacked by a terrorist group which was acting as a cover for a military attack by Wutai, who were enemies at the time. We had extremely limited forces to handle them with, and we had _nine_ locations we had to protect at all costs, while still needing to get them out of the city. We were operating at less than half our normal defensive capability. That meant our forces were spread _very_ thin. It was made harder by the fact that we were reacting to people already in our city, getting into place, and we had to scramble to catch up to them."

Drawing in a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment, he then met her gaze and told her, "At Shinra Headquarters, there were only five people left to defend it, and two of those weren't able to join us in battle until later, leaving three to meet the enemy when they blew out the entry doors. Vant, Genesis, and I had to keep back easily a few dozen attackers—we were all that had been left behind to protect _everyone in the building_ , from Shalua to Reeve to Rufus. Then, Tseng made it harder when he told me to ditch the front doors because the Wutain soldiers were climbing the outer walls of the building. That left Genesis and Vant to guard the entrance already under assault until one of the other Turks, Quis, joined them there.

"In the meantime, Tseng and I had to keep them from getting in at the top of the building, where all the executives, including Reeve, were at the time." He paused, then told her bluntly, "Tseng and I had to hold off about _seventy_ attackers, just the two of us, until they finally stopped coming. Genesis, Vant, and Quis had about that much between the three of them, and Sephiroth, Angeal, and a group of seven Infantrymen had about that much where they were in the city. We had no choice, and we had no help on the way to pick up the slack—if the enemy had gotten in there, they'd have had free access to the rest of the building, too."

"That wasn't really guard duty, though," Karru hesitantly pointed out.

"Wasn't it?" he asked sardonically. "The Turks were designed for investigation and guard duty as primary assignments. We were guarding the whole damned building right then, it was just reactionary rather than pre-emptive. When you're on guard duty, other people's _lives_ are your responsibility, they're depending on _you_ to _keep them alive_ against all odds. People who are 'weak' aren't given guard duty for that very reason. Regardless of what you _think_ right now, that's the reality of guard duty, Karru. It's _not_ to keep you safe, it's to put you directly in harm's way."

"But those creatures were able to kill me, so I wasn't able to keep Aeris and Hana safe," the girl replied miserably.

"Can you make me a Memory Sphere of the events so I can see what all happened up there while I was below?" he asked.

"Uh...Yeah, I think so," she agreed, then focused on her hand and some nearby pyreflies as she did something similar to when Yuna had made them a Record Sphere. When she was done, she offered the faintly blue, glowing orb to Eden, who took it and activated it so he—and Karru—could watch the events play out.

"Ah, that's what it was," he commented after watching it a second time.

"What was what?" the younger asked, sounding tired and miserable.

"You were doing so well at keeping them away from our healers, who they knew they'd have to get rid of if they wanted a chance to eliminate the rest of us, that they focused on you to get you out of the way. Because your skills are thief skills, you don't fight in a straight-forward way, so if they tried to attack the healers directly, you invariably stopped them before they could get too close. If only one got to the healers, they could handle it themselves, so the creatures needed more than one to get through, and _you_ kept that from happening. That's why they suddenly targeted you the way they did—you were _too strong_ , not too weak."

"...Huh?" the girl blinked, looking up at him with mixed wariness and hope.

"Look at this—I'll play it again and show you a few points which make all the difference, things you 'saw' in your periphery but didn't directly register," he offered, starting the image sequence in the Memory Sphere again. While it played, he pointed to a clear 'planning group' of the creatures which had been outside Karru's immediate vicinity, but which had been within her 'view'. It was only by watching the group he'd indicated that she realized they had indeed done another test to attack the healers, held another short meeting—then targeted her.

"...So wait...Even if I'm not strong enough to beat you, I fight in a way that makes it hard for them to reach their primary targets, so they have to get me out of the way first?" Karru blinked.

Eden's brow rose and he asked, "Would you like to try sparring? I'm not planning to hold back after seeing you fight in this Memory Sphere of yours."

She turned to look at him again in surprise, saw his even gaze, and drew in a deep breath. After a moment, she nodded and agreed, "Okay, let's spar."

...

About two hours later, they both collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, and shortly after, and annoyed Hana led the rest of the rather amused group to them. Sora, who was chuckling, carried Karru back to her room as Gamahri did the same for Eden.

As the Ronso was about to leave the room, he turned back to the blond and said, "Soon, we make another Summoner statue." He then left, leaving both Eden and Aria, who had settled with him, staring after him in surprise, even as Libby, ears twitching slowly, trotted past him and jumped onto the bed to join them.

"Where were you?" he asked Libby curiously.

"Data sharing with Reeve's mainframe," she replied. "I was watching you from the Inn roof. Did you have fun?"

After a pause and a small chuckle, Eden closed his eyes and answered, "Yeah."

His response produced a small giggle from Aria as Libby twitched her ears rapidly several times—a sign she was amused, rather than the slow twitching which meant she was processing something.

FoW

Eden thought they were on their sixth day in Fjallheim when someone suddenly sat down beside him, making him start and turn to look at—Yuna! Since he had been sitting on the top of a stone wall the townspeople had built to the side facing the cliff as an avalanche and rockfall breaker, he hadn't been expecting company, and Aria had appropriated Libby to learn about the planet Gaia. The woman looked sad as she reached up to gently lift the Summoner's earring he now wore, held it for a moment, then let it fall.

"When his Aeons returned to their anchors at Bevelle, they immediately got in touch with me to tell me a Summoner had died. I started looking for who it was, hoping it wasn't you or Hana, but pained to know any had died. Apparently, both of you came perilously close to death at the same time as Janero," Yuna commented. At Eden's puzzled expression, she clarified, "The Summoner whose earring you now wear."

His gaze turned pained, then he leaned his head on one hand and asked, "Do I really have the right to this earring? I couldn't...I couldn't save anyone except for Aria...Not him, or Freyra, or any of..."

Yuna was quiet for a moment. If it had been anyone else, Eden would immediately have jumped to 'taking it was wrong', but Yuna made a habit of taking a moment to assess why he may be asking, rather than just the question itself. Finally, she said, "Think back to Vanya and the day you asked me if you actually still deserved to be a Summoner."

"Why?" he asked faintly, not really wanting to face those memories again.

"What did I tell you about her and your status?"

After a pause to think back on their discussion in town that day, the last time he'd seen her until now, he slowly looked up and answered, "The fact that she chose me as her Summoner, despite what happened, validated my place as one."

Nodding, Yuna told him, "That's what Janero did for you the day he died, but it wasn't by becoming your Aeon, it was by giving you Summoner status. I know Hana's side of the story already, but you and Aria have largely been unable to share yours, and the only one who knows all of it is _you_. Will you find the strength in you to share with me what happened in the cavern below ground?"

"I had to tell Tseng already..." he muttered, looking away in pain.

"And I'm sure you left out some of the things I would like to know. If you aren't ready just yet, we can wait for a few more days—my party is planning to stay for awhile with you. It's obviously been hard on all of you, and even experienced soldiers like Sora and Gamahri are having some trouble. Also, it seems the recovery teams will be returning tomorrow, and I'd like to be here for that...A loss is always painful."

After a long silence while Yuna just waited quietly by his side for an answer one way or the other, he finally started talking, telling her about things he'd just glossed over with Tseng—dancing, the pyreflies, the play-by-play of his last discussion with Janero. Aria's reaction, and how he'd responded to it also found their way into the explanation. Everyone else's deaths, he just glossed over, as he'd done with Tseng. Apparently, from her perspective, that was his first and major mistake.

"Eden, tell me what happened as you found each of the rest of Janero's Guardians," Yuna said quietly after a minute.

A frigid wind blew past and he shivered, mentally snorting at the timing, but quickly realizing he was still trembling after the wind passed. Yuna's hands settled over his, steadying and warming them as she just waited. To him, that meant she already knew the answer, knew what had happened to them, and knew he wasn't facing it.

"One was already dead, completely crushed under a slab," he sighed faintly after several minutes. "I mean, besides the one who had already died by the time we got there. Under the same slab, one other was three quarters crushed and pretty much already gone...I had...I couldn't...It was like seeing the torture subjects in Deepground all over again, and I couldn't just let him drift off slowly in that state...So I beheaded him quickly, cleanly, let him move on. A woman was mostly dead, too...She saw me draw my blade and _thanked_ me for what I was about to do, to kill her quickly, and told me to thank Seraph for easing her pain..."

He stopped there, not able to move on to Freyra.

Yuna was quiet for a minute before asking, "Did you also help Freyra move on?" He shook his head. "Why didn't you?"

"She...had to tell me about Aria...She died on her own before she'd completely finished, but she'd been able to say enough for me to find her..."

Then Yuna asked the most painful question, "If she had finished and still been alive, would you have sent her on? _Would_ you have been _able_ to grant her the same peace as you did the other two who weren't quite dead yet?"

"...I don't know..." he whispered in reply.

"You've never before been in a situation where you've had to end the life of someone you personally care about (1)," she said quietly, and he nodded, despite the fact that she'd just been voicing a fact. "Do you think you could have done it if she'd asked you to end her suffering?"

"Why are you asking me these things?" he asked, already in more agony than he wanted to deal with. He didn't think he'd ever cried as much as the people around him had already gotten him to in the last week or so.

"Because, Eden, as painful as it is, something in your mind right now is on the verge of breaking, and you're only vaguely aware something is wrong, more than normal. You have no idea what got bent or how to straighten it again, and that means we have to start digging through your thought processes and feelings to figure that out."

"Then I'm not ready to be a Summoner."

"You aren't the first Summoner I've had to do this for. Or do you somehow think a trained Summoner can't have problems like this?" His shoulders hunched, so Yuna sighed faintly and said, "Eden, about...well, almost two thousand years ago now, I'd had a close friend, the sort who only comes along once in a millennium. She came with me everywhere, and drove both Tidus and Wakka mad, for different reasons, but proved both her skill and her mettle many times over. She and Rikku mostly got along, only irritating each other through an on-going prank war. I suppose I'd have described her as my twin sister, even though that was physically impossible."

The woman paused for a long moment as she drifted off into her own memory, then she pulled herself back and went on, "One day, things went horribly bad very suddenly, and we were trapped in a chamber below the ocean as it slowly leaked water. She had been trapped under the rubble and pierced by a snapped beam. If I moved _anything_ , I risked the whole chamber collapsing under the water pressure from outside. Her life was just dragging on, and she begged me several times to kill her before she had to suffer the fate of drowning—she was already in enough pain..."

"...Did you kill her?" Eden asked softly, looking up at her, gaze pained.

She sighed faintly and explained, "I asked her how she could ask me to do something so terrible to her. She told me it's because she loves me, she trusts me, and she knows I'll always cherish her memory, regardless of how she died. Then, she asked me to be strong to spare her a worse fate, and said she'd ask no one but me because of our bond, even knowing I would be the one to suffer the most because of it." Pausing Yuna lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "So finally, I accepted the fact that she was going to die long before anyone would be able to get us out of there, and killed her before she had to die of drowning."

Silence fell between them for a minute, then Eden asked, "How did you deal with it?"

"I almost didn't," Yuna admitted softly. He blinked in surprise, and Yuna sighed faintly again. "Then, or when one of my descendants had been turned into some strange...thing with no real definition, but which I suppose could have been a cross between a human and a plant which was rooted in place. The building wasn't a building, it was part of the thing he'd been made into, and it wouldn't be possible to do anything else without first killing him. I wasn't sure I would be able to go through that again, but like she did, he asked me to kill him." It was obvious by her phrasing that she had managed to do the task, but it had been painful, just as the previous one had been.

"You realized in Deepground that sometimes, death is the only option the person has, so they can be released from this world, this life, and move on to the next peacefully. If they aren't physically or mentally able to do it themselves, someone else has to, and most prefer the last person they see, the one to end their life, be someone who cares, not someone who would see them as little more than trash. If it must be, then let it be the one who will remember the good, not revel in the suffering. That way of thinking is actually very common. But it's when you're really close to the person that it gets hard, because you don't actually want to see them dead, let alone by your own hands."

Yuna paused after explaining how people often thought about such a situation, reaching up to lift Eden's earring again. "You weren't close to Janero or his Guardians, but you still showed so much caring and compassion for them. The woman who was able to acknowledge you saw your pain and knew you would never mock them or revel in their suffering. Like we discussed before, while we were still at Erva Eyja, Eden...When you were in Deepground, you largely only felt pity and pain for what had become of them. This is no different, it's just closer to your heart. But if Freyra hadn't drifted off into death herself, knowing what you know of her injuries, would you have been able to find the strength to end her suffering sooner?"

For several long moments, Eden sat silently, just staring at her, until he finally looked away and said, "I had first thought I would have to. Then, I stayed my hand because—I felt like I shouldn't have thought something like that about my honorary sister. If it had kept going for too long...I think I would have done it, but...Even just thinking about it makes me feel sick, like...how could I so easily discard her life, rather than trying to find a way to save her? I'm only still sane because the practical part of my mind keeps pointing out that the damage alone had made her body irreparable, so I'd really only have had the option of ending her life sooner."

The woman wrapped her arm around his shoulders and admitted, "And nothing you can do or say will ease the pain until time puts distance between you and her death. At the same time, you need to accept that wanting to end the pain of a suffering loved one isn't wrong. Just like it wasn't wrong to do the same for the people in Deepground."

Eden leaned against the older woman's side and said softly, "Even if I could have kept her alive, she'd have had no quality of life, or not much of one. She'd never have been able to really be happy in the state she was in. She said she had no regrets, and warned me...about knowing this would happen, that the Turks would start to die around me...I think she knew her death would affect me so strongly."

"I don't doubt that," Yuna agreed.

Some time later, the two roused themselves and returned to the Inn, where all of Yuna's Guardians were waiting with Hana and hers. Aria and Libby appeared to still be upstairs, but when Eden followed Yuna inside, Kariya was on his feet right away, making his way to the blond teen to give him a tight hug.

Holding him at arm's length for a moment, the man asked, "How are you doing, Eden?" His gaze was worried—like Balto, he'd known it would be hard on the younger Turk.

"I..." Eden began to say, then stopped, realizing having another Turk there was his trigger, and if he tried to talk, the full state of mourning would set in.

"I watched Maur die, and Judet, and I couldn't help either of them," Kariya said quietly, his pain very real. "It's fresh in my memory. Alvis, Veld, and now Freyra as well...It's no good for you to try to mourn her alone."

Swallowing, Eden asked, "Have you been told about Aria?"

"I have," he agreed.

"If you're going to force me into this, then we have to include her, because I promised to share this with her once I was ready to mourn."

After a momentary pause, the man nodded and said, "Lead the way, then."

Eden showed him up to the room he and Aria had been sharing—even though there were two beds, one of which was Aria's, she very frequently ended up in his rather than her own. Even right then, she was sitting in the middle of his bed, a sharp knife in one hand as Libby rested her paws on the hand which held the knife, her ears standing up tensely. It was obvious what had been going through Aria's mind, and that Libby had been very alarmed and was trying to stop her.

"Aria?" he asked, his tone horrified and pained.

She looked at him and Kariya in surprise, then blushed faintly and set the knife down, even as Libby looked at him and said, "Aria thought maybe it would be better to join her father!"

Kariya's hand on his shoulder held him still as the man asked the girl on the bed, "So, when you last saw your father, what did he say and do?"

"He..." Aria began, then paused before going on. "He gave his Summoner's earring to Eden, then told him to take care of me for him..."

"So...he wanted you to live and tried to be sure someone would be there to take care of you, even if he couldn't anymore?" Kariya asked. His tone was oddly relaxed. When Aria nodded almost reluctantly, he asked her, "so why would you throw your own life away when he obviously wanted so very much for you to _live_ it?"

"But I don't have anything left!" she burst out, tears filling her eyes as she looked up at him.

"Do you actually _realize_ what happened when Freyra gave her life to save yours?" the older man asked her as he pushed Eden into the room, stepped inside himself, and closed the door, then pulled the blond Turk over to the bed. Kariya sat on it near her, but made no motion to remove the knife from her reach.

"...What? Something happened besides a stranger being made to take care of me?" she asked with a frown. There was pain in it, too.

"You were like a little sister to Freyra, and both she and your father turned you over to Eden," Kariya told her, and she blinked. "That means, by default, that all of the Turks are your family now—every one of us. And we don't like seeing our kids hurt. Just like all of the Turks are protective of Shelke, so too will we all be of _you_. Freyra left you to our care, and we're going to make good on that. You haven't lost everything—you've lost your old family, and gained a whole new one in the process, a large one all waiting to meet you. So, since you and Eden both still have mourning to do, let's all do it together so you'll be fit to meet everyone in the near future."

When he made the offer of a shoulder to lean on to both of the younger ones, they both responded to it, even as a relieved Libby sat beside them, ears twitching slowly and methodically.

 **Notes:**

(1) Phrasing is everything. While Ed unwittingly killed Al, for example, he didn't go into it with the intent to do so. Up until he was faced with the situation in the cavern, he's never had to allocate family/friends to possibly killing under the terms of a 'mercy killing'. Even for those who can use reason to reach the necessary result, this is exceptionally painful for the one doing it, especially a loved one, and it takes time to recover from because the heart still registers it as 'murder', and worse because you _do_ care about the person.


	79. 75-Last Leg

**A/N:** Seriously, I'll be shocked if anyone's really surprised by the creatures' origins...I've been kind of obvious in previous chapters...

Last Leg

After the night Aria and Eden spent with Kariya, both found themselves more able to move forward, and adding the rest of Yuna's Guardians to the mix helped the whole group. Eden ended up being the one to tell Yuna about Hana having sent a Sin-level fiend in the Den of Woe, and who also shared Tusati's assessment of the creatures. Rikku and Karru sparred the day after they arrived, and would have been an even match—except for Karru's experience with fighting the creatures, leading to her eventually defeating Rikku. It was an unexpected result, but after Rikku had gone off to pout for awhile, she had returned and hugged Karru as she praised her skill so honestly Karru practically glowed.

After another four days at Fjallheim, Hana and her Guardians finally felt like they were ready to move forward, to finish their Pilgrimage. As such, as Yuna and hers went south, Hana and hers set out north—on that side of the mountains was where they found real Behemoths, the strong ones Eden and Aeris had fought in the Northern Crater, rather than the weaker ones in Mi'ihen. After fighting a few of them, Karru declared them stronger than Basilisks—and quickly made the same pronouncement of every monster they met which would normally have been found in that northern region of Gaia (the planet).

With Aria helping them out, mostly using status effects to great advantage, the battles weren't really very hard, and they were able to cross the northern plains to Frelsa fairly easily. It was still a journey of about five days; there was only one road north out of Fjallheim, a route which took two days to reach the crossroads at the base of the mountain, where one path turned west towards Frelsa and one turned east towards New Midgar. Each of those roads took about three days from the crossroads to the city in question, though there were small towns and inns for them to stop at on the way, even as people had begun farming in the regions at a distance from the two central cities. There was nothing of new at the attack site in Frelsa, so they moved on after a couple days, taking the coastal road towards New Midgar.

It was while they were traveling that road, nearly half-way between the two cities, when they met the creatures again as they came up suddenly from the ocean. Sudden it may have been, but not so sudden the group couldn't prepare—the shore there was steep enough to slow them down slightly, but not so steep they weren't visible early in their approach. Aeris and Hana took their roles as healers, Aria with them and Karru guarding the three of them. With Aria being largely for status effects, however, it meant the creatures would be Blinded, Sleeped, or Confused long before reaching the three, which also gave Karru more time to kill them before they got to them. Eden, Sora, Koln, and Gamahri all fought hard in the midst of the hoard.

The battle was easily as much of a mess as when they had met the creatures in the mountains, only without the hole in the nearest open space to worry about. Instead, the creatures began to direct attacks in certain directions, generally at Aria, Karru, Aeris, and Hana, forcing the other four to withdraw to them for support, both ways. Unlike last time, it seemed the creatures were trying to overrun them—the directed attack had been targeted on them, rather than this having been a random attack. The proof was in the numbers they were facing, which previously had been three, or in Karru's case, four, but were now six or seven on average, with more just waiting to take the places of any fallen.

Hack, Sleep, slash, jab, heal, Blind, heal, hack—it just went on and on. They were getting tired, something apparently the creatures weren't struggling with, and the battle was just dragging on. How many of them _were_ there? They had long since lost track of how long they'd been fighting, and it was only when Aria stumbled on a stone that the others realized they'd been herded—or more appropriately, pushed—to the water's edge. On the beach, what little of it there was, and on a slope, they were at a disadvantage.

Suddenly, one of the creatures dove low and knocked Aria's feet out from under her, then pulled her in the direction of the water as she screamed, and Eden immediately reacted by snatching her and tossing her back to Hana and Aeris.

Before Eden could react, he'd been sent flying into the water, and it was only because of his years of battle experience that he instinctively cast Shield on himself as he hit. Since he was already using Underwater (rather, it activated automatically as long as he had it slotted), it meant he was in no danger of drowning. What worried him was how he sunk—and as the creatures tried to attack him from above, they forced him to sink further and further towards the ocean floor. It was just about pitch black by the time he saw light flash—and lightning glanced off his shield as the creatures shrieked. Many of them died, but some could apparently flee.

Looking up, he only just had enough time to register Bismarck above him before the great whale shark had passed him and Hana snatched his hand from her place on Bismarck's back. She pulled herself back into the space between two of Bismarck's crystalline spikes and tugged him towards the space just ahead of hers so he could grab hold and anchor himself there. As soon as he realized what she was doing, he extended Shield and Underwater to her and reached out to the spikes so she didn't have to keep trying to hold him against the drag. Looking up and around once he was holding on, he realized Bismarck's spikes gave off so much light she was effectively lighting up the ocean over a quarter of a mile all the way around her.

The creatures were fleeing, and Bismarck was following them down and under the continent above, past more than one pillar as they released eerie, not-quite-whale-like noises which were more like shrieks. Suddenly, however, Bismarck pulled to a stop, warily eying the veritable wall of the creatures just in her light's range, making it obvious that she knew she couldn't hit so many over such a wide area all at once. Hana and Eden traded worried looks before looking forward again to see if they could find anything of note in the semi-darkness past the wall of creatures. Sure enough, it looked like there was some sort of strange indent in the ocean floor, where the ones they'd been following disappeared into.

Eden looked at Hana and pointed upward, so she nodded and reached down to lightly rap on Bismarck's back. A few moments later, Bismarck had spun and surged towards the surface at a speed which caused both humans' ears to pop as both flinched at the pain of the sudden shift in pressure. It only took a couple minutes for them to reach the surface, which Bismarck hovered above for a few minutes while Hana and Eden tried to get their ears back to normal and let the pain ease. Once they had, she flew the short distance to the shore, where the rest of the group was waiting for them, looking worried.

The two Summoners pretty much fell off Bismarck's back, and found themselves being caught before they hit the ground, Hana by Sora and Eden by Gamahri. Once they were off her back, Bismarck shifted back to her fayth form, and Liarin joined them to wait for Hana and Eden to be ready to talk. Both were mildly annoyed to be carried to a stand of rocks near the area of the attack by the Guardian who caught them, but sat side-by-side on one of the larger rocks when they were put down. Liarin stood near Hana as the others gathered around the two, finding places to sit, even as Aria hugged him and Libby returned to his shoulder from where she'd been with Aeris, as usual.

"I think we found the lab. Or what's left of it," Eden said suddenly.

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked, just as mystified as everyone else in the group. Hana first seemed puzzled, but then her eyes widened in recognition.

"When Tusati talked about his era," Hana said to the others, and Eden nodded, so she went on. "He told us there had been three other continents, and that two of his peers had been developing illegal labs to develop beings 'like' the Machina. The armor they wear is crafted using techniques from his era as well, and of the times they raided the two scientists' labs, one they raided three times, and the other only twice because they hadn't been able to _find_ the last one. If it had been underwater, and under the ocean floor, just past the coast—which is now 'somewhere under the northern portion of Gaia'—why they never found it would make sense."

"So then why are they attacking us _now_?" Aria asked apprehensively.

Karru shocked the others when she said suddenly in realization, "It's _because of_ the continent of Gaia!"

Several of the others traded puzzled looks, then asked her, "What?"

"They got trapped in their lab under what was left of that—Gonor, or whatever it was—got blown up, but then Minerva came along and _lifted up_ a huge part of what would have been on top of them!" she clarified eagerly. "And without all of that on top of the lab entrance, they could get out and try to do what they had been instructed to do, but it didn't work out so well because the world had changed so much!"

"It would fit," Eden agreed. "Because Tusati said one had been based in Vacaran Port, which had been on the northern coast of Gonnel, and under Gaia by default. It's entirely possible they're now free because of the ocean floor Minerva appropriated to create Gaia in the first place, and because she created Gaia by putting it on stilts, not using the traditional method of pushing land up, she opened space for them to get out. And now we need to figure out what we're going to do about that, since they're _way_ behind the times and literally don't know the world has changed and that what they were created for is now completely irrelevant."

"We should ask Reeve," Libby said right away from his shoulder. "Didn't Tseng say he was looking for a way to re-program them from outside? And we're heading for New Midgar, anyway, so it's literally on the way."

"Okay, I can follow that," Koln agreed. "But what made them attack us like that? They've never come on shore here before, otherwise we'd have been able to see the marks they left behind."

"We're the only people besides Angeal who have survived a meeting with them," Hana pointed out. The others' gazes became grim. "We survived to tell others about them, and we decimated the force which had been assigned to attack the group on land—Janero's Pilgrimage. They called buddies to join them—there had never previously been a group so large come on land—and we defeated _them_ , too. I daresay we made ourselves very, very frightening to them, so they're now focused on us, targeting us, to get us out of the way. Especially after Karru was killed, but 'somehow' came back to life, something they can't reference. It's probably just as well we're almost done now that we're their primary targets. How do we mitigate that?"

"...I almost hate to say this, but our only chance _really is_ Reeve," Sora answered.

"Underwater, what happened?" Gamahri asked suddenly.

"Yeah, Hana, how'd you get down there with Liarin to _start_ with?" Eden asked her.

"After you were thrown into the water, I Summoned Bismarck, which pretty much took care of the ones on land," Hana shrugged. "Then Sora and Gamahri tossed me onto her back and I sent her into the water after you and the stragglers who ran rather than trying to hang around with Bismarck there. I do like your underwater visual range, though, Liarin."

"I do, too," she agreed dryly. "But the number of them, even with how electricity carries in water, there was no way I could get it to spread to all of them. I think the salt is something of a buffer to the electrical current. And with the number down there, trying to attack would have left me open to attack, and both of you with me. I'm glad you decided to turn back."

"We realized the same thing when we saw the wall," Eden agreed wryly. "But having also seen the hole the ones you chased disappeared into—if you know how far you traveled, and in what direction, we now have a pretty good idea of their location."

"...Wall?" Koln asked, tone and gaze wary.

Hana sighed and rose as she said, "There were definitely over two hundred of them in something like a 'wall' of sorts between us and the hole the others vanished into. I don't believe that's their whole fighting force, but there's a good chance it's a fair portion of it. And we had best keep going before they regroup and decide to attack us again before we reach the safety of New Midgar."

With agreement from the others, Liarin vanished back into Hana and the group set out again, still following the road towards New Midgar. Thankfully, that day and the next two needed to reach New Midgar were quiet, and they arrived in the evening, likely shortly after supper, though they weren't sure of their exact timing. As they walked into the city, Eden called Tseng to tell him they were just arriving, which the Wutain eagerly replied that his timing couldn't have been better and 'they'd' be waiting in the Turks' office. In that case, it was an unspoken agreement for Eden to introduce Aria to them properly, so just the two of them would be visiting the office later.

Every time Eden saw New Midgar, he felt oddly disoriented and like he was arriving in a completely new town rather than the one actually designated as his home, so he let Sora take the lead. New Midgar had definitely been fashioned after the original Midgar, but without the Plate above the Slums—so far, it didn't look like New Midgar even _had_ 'slums'. Then again, for a city less than a year old, that was no surprise. Bevelle had been more like home to him, even though he'd always known it was a temporary one, and he realized the reason why New Midgar didn't have the sense of home was because he hadn't spent much time there since it had been built. And in some cases, was still being built.

It didn't take them long to reach the central building of the city, which was— _very_ different from Shinra Headquarters on Gaia. It was about as tall, but it was largely shaped like a cone with the point at the top, really making it look like a giant spike. The reason it was so much wider at the bottom was because a massive portion of the central interior had been appropriated for an indoor park and exercise facility, and some shafts had been built into the working facilities around it to let in natural light. Almost everything they grew in that central 'garden' was either edible or produced food, and even the pond (not the pool for swimming) and circular stream had fish in it meant both to eat and to keep the garden's ecosystem running smoothly.

While that space took up about six full floors height-wise, the same space (minus shrinkage due to the conical requirements) for the next three floors above that had been allocated to library space. The next floor above that in the central area of the building had room after room of VR rooms, some of those open to the public and some which required SOLDIER or Turk ID to enter, though those were largely still being built—only four rooms, two each public and ID required, were useable. Above that, whole floors were properly devoted to the regular office requirements, though some of that space was actively 'public space', as in, of the floors allocated to residences, the largest of them was meant for people in the city to stay in if needed, not for 'employees'.

The space surrounding the garden was still fairly extensive, with all manner of public facilities, like the shops, lobby, and customer service on the first floor, followed by the Academy floors (they still needed two), and the ever-shrinking space on the next two floors required both of them to be allocated to student housing. And they had _a lot_ of students with no families to house. The sixth floor was where most of the light shafts to the garden were, so space there not used for those shafts became storage space. The library floors had a small cafeteria and various sitting and study rooms around the extremities, and on the floor where the VR rooms were, there were other training facilities and storage rooms, the latter requiring ID to enter. Most of Zack's and Yufi's Materia ended up in those if they weren't sent to Eden.

Immediately above the VR room floor, there was the public hospital, then public temporary housing. Above those were the rooms for SOLDIER and the Turks—and it was a good thing so much space had been allocated to the Turks after the influx of students being promoted to the Turks early. Nearly every one of those rooms had been assigned to someone. The SOLDIER and Turk offices were the next two floors above those, and the floor above that was where building security operated from. (1) The floors above the security floor were where they did research and development, where the internal hospital was, and where the employee cafeteria was. They required 'Shinra' ID to access, but not the specialty ID of the combat personnel. At the top of the building, as usual, were the executive offices, including Rufus', Reeve's, and when he was there, Godo's. There was even one for Felicia and/or Shears.

When they stepped inside, it was to see Sephiroth waiting for them to show them to Reeve's office, first and foremost. They would then be able to retire to the public rooms on the twelfth floor if they either didn't have other rooms to use or preferred to stay close to the Pilgrimage group. Before that, however, Reeve wanted to get their input, and Rufus wanted to see for himself that Eden was fine. Well, as 'fine' as anyone could be after the loss of someone they had been close to. It took about two hours, during which they ate a late supper, to finally satisfy Reeve, who then told them to stay around for a few days while he worked.

When they were released, the others headed to their rooms, but Eden caught Aria's arm and pulled her off to the side and away from the group. "Before _we_ can rest, there's something we have to do," he told her, taking the lead to the elevator (well, most of the elevators in the building operated more like diagonal lifts like the one which had been in Junon, rather than like elevators).

"What's that?" she asked a bit tiredly—and a bit warily.

He chuckled, then selected the sixteenth floor, where the Turks' offices were in this new building. Shinra Headquarters was obviously always going to be a place with which to impress people, and Rufus had amply proven that point with his design. Eden was actually shocked Reeve and the engineers were able to pull it off, and so quickly, too.

The design was more practical, though, and more personable rather than cold—they weren't walking through solid metal halls in steel gray, they were walking through mixes of various colors in combinations of metal, stone, and wood, depending on the area. The office halls, at least on the Turks' floor, were mostly wood and metal, and largely in cream, brown, and gray. All-in-all, Eden _much_ preferred the new office floor to the one in steel gray in the old Shinra building in Midgar.

Finally, he got to the door of the main office on their floor, and hesitated a moment before he pushed it open, stepping inside with Aria following timidly—especially when she saw what was effectively dozens of people waiting for them. Most of them happily greeted Eden, most also immediately offering support due to Freyra's death, though the senior Turks who were present—admittedly not all of them, like Kariya, who were out on Pilgrimages—greeted him the most warmly. Rude was one of the last to approach the blond Turk, hugging him tightly, then resting his hand on his head for a minute. Tseng, the last of them to welcome Eden back, hugged him just as tightly, quietly reiterating to him that he most certainly wasn't at fault for what happened to Freyra. Somehow, having Tseng say it in person meant a lot more than when he'd said it on the phone.

Pulling back from Eden, Tseng turned to look at Aria, who had been trying to hide in the corner near the door, asking, "I'm guessing this girl is Aria?"

"Yes, that's Aria," Eden agreed, then looked at her with a raised brow and commented, "I never took you for the sort to be so shy."

She blushed and muttered something that had the Turk nearest her, Quis, laughing. Quis then hopped over to her, which startled her into looking up in alarm, and said, "There are a lot of us, yes, and we aren't all here right now. I can see how such a large group would be intimidating. But you know what?"

"...What?" Aria asked, still a little timid.

"You're our sister now, so we're not going to bite!" the young man practically chirped, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her right into the middle of the other Turks.

All she managed to get out as he did was an alarmed, "Hey, wait!" Oddly, it was a little like watching a black wave swallow her up as the Turks closed in around her to greet and welcome her.

A chuckle from Tseng caused Eden to look at him curiously, so the Wutain said, "Since there are nearly four times more of us than there used to be, and some aren't here now, I suppose I should have realized introductions would be intimidating."

"There are new faces here, too," Eden commented. "I recognize the students from when we defended Omega Rock, but there are at least five Turks I don't recognize."

"They were from an agreement with Yuna back—not long after the attack. You suggested to her that she talk with Rufus and me about getting help from the Turks, and the immediate response was that she could use our help for awhile, but we'd eventually need people of hers to train. You were last here a month before the Pilgrimage, so you wouldn't know she started sending us her people to train while on the Pilgrimage. Those five are the ones she sent. I have no idea what she was basing her choices on, but she seems to have picked a good starting set," the Wutain explained.

"Ah. So, who all is missing right now?" Eden asked. "I know Kariya, and Illis is with Yufi in Hourai. I'm not seeing Balto..."

"No, Balto's arriving tomorrow with his Summoner. Cissnei, Ruluf, and Riona of the ones you knew well are also on Pilgrimages, and I don't have arrival times for them, though Cissnei has said they're on their way now from Hourai. The rest of the Turks who got snapped up for Pilgrimages are the former students who mourned with us at Erva Eyja—you'd recognize them, but likely never heard their names or code names. They're also not sure of their arrival times, since most of those began here and are now working their ways through Wilderia and Djose."

"...Just the Turks, none of our Academy kids?"

"At this time of day, Shalua and Shelke are working somewhere in Reeve's department, and I know Anthony and Cloud are with a SOLDIER patrol unit which is also due to return tomorrow. Evan, Tifa, and Karen are the only ones who are somewhat available, and I'm not sure we want to disturb them when their teachers nearly unanimously gave them tests today rather than normal class work. We'll introduce her to the kids when classes let out tomorrow," Tseng answered, gaze amused. "Besides, I think she's got plenty to deal with right now, just with meeting her new family."

"...Yeah, probably," Eden chuckled as he heard Aria voice an annoyed complaint about something, but he wasn't sure what. It was likely friendly teasing, though, by the laughter it had incited from the other Turks. "I don't think she realized just what she was going to be gaining by becoming Freyra's honorary sister."

"I don't think Shalua, Shelke, or Tifa realized it, either," Tseng chuckled, then stepped away from Eden to make his way through the Turks and to Aria himself.

 **Notes:**

(1) To make things easy for people who don't want to either count or guess, here's a short list of the floors up to building security—the rest isn't especially relevant where above the building security floor it is.

1 (ground floor, garden, lobby, shops, etc.)

2-3 (garden, Shinra Academy)

4-5 (garden, student rooms/housing)

6 (garden, storage)

7-8-9 (library, sitting and study rooms, cafeteria)

10 (VR rooms, training, storage)

11 (public hospital)

12 (public temporary housing)

13 (SOLDIER housing)

14 (Turks' housing)

15 (SOLDIER Offices)

16 (Turks' Offices—yes, they still have more than one hidden area in there!)

17 (Building security)


	80. 76-Only Option

Only Option

Aria had decided to stay with Eden in his apartment that night, not realizing that would mean some of the other Turks would hijack her first thing in the morning to give her 'the grand tour' of the city and building the way it mattered to the Turks. They let Eden stay behind to 'rest', even though he obviously wasn't going to get any of it after having woken and had a laughing fit at their antics. He managed to quickly call Hana and the rest of the group to alert them to Aria's distress, asking them to intercept the 'tour' on the training floor so they could join it. With her amused agreement, Eden decided to take Libby with him to see what the Library was looking like.

It was around noon, while he read a freshly-printed book in the small cafeteria on the Library floors, that he got a call. Answering the call, he asked, "What can I do for you, Reeve?"

"I think I need you to come back to my office, and maybe to have that—what's the name of that very ancient Aeon of yours?" Reeve asked, sounding like he was lost.

"Tusati," Eden answered. "You need his help for something?"

"I believe I do," Reeve agreed. "I didn't get to speak directly with him before, just heard his general observations second-hand. I'm going to need more than that to figure out what isn't adding up right now."

"Okay, I'll head up shortly—I'm just finishing my meal right now," Eden agreed.

"Great, thanks!" the man replied, sounding happier.

They hung up and Eden finished eating, then took Libby with him to put away the book and head up to Reeve's office. When they got there, a pair of engineers were just leaving, blueprints in hand, so he stepped inside and closed the door. Reeve had a completely different blueprint in front of him, as well as three computers active, each running a different program. One of those was some sort of holographic one the man apparently used to interact directly with one of the other programs.

"So, you needed to talk with Tusati?" Eden asked the man, who glanced up at him momentarily.

"Yes, in a minute. I just need to adapt this one last thing..." the man replied. He kept typing on the holographic keyboard for a minute, then stopped and sat back to face the blond Turk. "All right, I'm done with that part, if you would? Or do you need something from me to summon him?"

Eden gave him a wryly amused look and held a hand out to the side, summoning Tusati to the indicated place. The man appeared—and suddenly, all four of them stopped to stare in something like shock.

"Uh, Eden...Is it just me or do Reeve and Tusati look a lot alike?" Libby asked, one of her ears twitching slowly while the other was seemingly frozen in a downward-pointing position. It was true. Other than their clothes and Reeve's shorter hair and lack of glasses, the two men looked very, very much alike.

Suddenly, Eden snorted and said, "Tuesti, Tusati. It would be so easy to mistake those. I suddenly have the feeling that it was the Cetra the first Spirans on Gaia met who ended up accidentally renaming the Tusati line 'Tuesti'. Unless you didn't have any descendants, Tusati?"

The fayth shook his head and replied, "I had six with my wife. Their fate, I have no idea of, but they were all well-established adults by the time I chose to chance the Essence Sphere. It is possible this...Reeve is my descendant. What is the name Tuesti, however, if this man's name is Reeve?"

"Oh, in your era you all only had given names, didn't you?" Reeve asked with sudden awareness, and Tusati inclined his head. Reeve nodded and explained, "We have a name which applies to the family, as well as our given name. I don't know if you ever did something like referring to someone as, say, 'Mark the Baker' to differentiate them from 'Mark the Smith', but when you have a lot of people who have the same given name, eventually, choosing a family name becomes necessary—usually, the name would have been an ancestor's name, a profession, or a location. My family name is Tuesti, but my given name is Reeve. Similarly, there was once an Al Bhed child named Shinra, who is most likely the ancestor of our current leader, Rufus Shinra."

"Ah," Tusati nodded in agreement. "Yes, we had begun to run into such issues, and in several cases had begun to specify the town the individual had been born in with their given name—normally, two of the same name in the same town was rare. As the towns grew in size, it became much more difficult to choose unique names for one's children."

Reeve nodded and said, "Okay, then as interesting as it is to know you're my ancestor—most likely, anyway—I actually asked Eden to call you here so we could talk about those creatures in the kind of detail and background I need to know. Since you ultimately know the most about them, that means I need your help."

"I see," Tusati nodded. "This I will do."

"In that case, Eden, you may want to leave for awhile because by your own admission, even if you're a scientist, you aren't an engineer or a programmer," Reeve said to the blond. "Unless you have a distance requirement with a fayth?"

"I'd have to test that, but I know he and Vanya were able to keep working on their assessment while Hana and I walked almost half a mile away, so I could easily go back to the Library and read," Eden offered. At their amused looks and nods, he asked, "Libby, staying or coming?"

"Staying!" she eagerly answered. "Please?"

"Have fun, then. Call me when you're done," Eden agreed, giving them all a wave and heading back down to the Library.

He had been there for awhile when he felt someone sit against his back, making him blink and look over his shoulder—to see Balto there! With a faint sigh, he leaned back against the older man, who commented, "I hope you aren't reading because you're trying to hide from her death."

"Yuna and Kariya worked me through the worst of it," Eden replied absently, setting the book aside. "It was probably a good thing they got to Fjallheim when they did, because Aria actually seriously thought about suicide."

Balto sighed, then asked, "Are you sure _you_ didn't?"

A long silence followed as Eden reassessed his thoughts during that time, for as much of them as he remembered, then said, "That didn't come into the equation. I guess it could have after that time when I broke down, but even that didn't really qualify as a 'suicide attempt'. It wasn't something I actively thought about, it was just a general lack of desire to do anything. Aria actually picked up a knife with the thought of using it to end her life. Because I'd had her—and Karru—to focus on, I ended up not going that direction. It was the same with my brother."

The older man lightly bumped the back of his head against Eden's and said, "I'm glad to know you weren't turning in that direction yourself, and that you were able to get her past it."

"Have you met her yet? I don't think so, since they were on a tour..."

"I did, actually, because I had to help orient the rest of my party here in New Midgar. Your group is really interesting, and Aria seemed to be happier dealing with me than with her Turk escorts," Balto commented in amusement.

"Heh, yeah, they sort of hijacked her this morning, so I'm not surprised she's annoyed with them," Eden replied, equally as amused. "She _really_ had no idea what she was getting into when she let Freyra get so close to her."

With a chuckle, the man said, "I noticed you have a blue earring now."

"Shouldn't Tseng have told you?"

"He was more focused on Aria and Freyra than on your apparent promotion."

"Oh," the blond sighed faintly. "Aria's father switched mine out and gave me his. So yeah, I got promoted, but..."

"Not in the way or at the time you would have liked."

They sat silently for a few minutes as Balto shifted so he could pull Eden into a one-armed hug. Eden leaned on him as he went back to reading for awhile, just liking the sense of comfort and assurance it gave. "I still miss her so much. It hasn't been very long, and that...it's never far from my mind..." he finally murmured.

"I know," Balto agreed. "But more than any other Turk except maybe Quis, she was the most cheerful of our number, and she _celebrated life_. She was the first to tell us to think about the good times we'd had with a Turk who had just died, and she told us that she wanted us to be laughing and happy at her funeral. So soon after her death may be expecting a lot, but she didn't want us to _mourn_ her—she _wants_ us to _cherish_ her memory."

After a pause, Eden blinked and said, "She told me 'I have no regrets.' If she always lived life to the fullest, her being able to say that so surely as she lay dying meant she really was okay with that. One of the things I learned...should have learned, anyway...from Teacher should have been that death is part of the natural cycle of life, and if she celebrated life, by extension, she had to've celebrated death, too. She'd have wanted us to view her death the same way. All of this...the sadness, is really just us feeling sorry for ourselves." He gave his head a shake and started to sit up, barely holding back tears (and damn, wasn't that just getting annoying already?), but Balto pulled him back against him.

"Losing someone you care about is a big change in your life, and it takes time to adapt to. Yes, some of it is feeling sorry for yourself, but most of it is the very real fact that people can't actually react any other way to such a huge loss. Getting past it is easier and faster when you remember the good times, but that won't stop pain and disorientation from the change until you adapt. And _because_ you saw it, Eden, it's going to be harder for you to adapt than for the rest of us, because you also have the trauma of the witness and of being the survivor. Don't feel ashamed or guilty for having a completely natural reaction to her death, regardless of her wanting us to remember the good times we had with her," Balto replied.

His grip tightened on Eden as the blond turned to him to return the hug. After several minutes, the younger man breathed faintly, "Thank you." Balto's only response was to give his back a gentle pat before tightening his grip again.

FoW

Later in the day, Hana, Koln, Gamahri, Karru, and Aria had joined him and Balto in the Library while Sora and Aeris visited friends and family in New Midgar. That day was quiet, other than a visit by some of the other Turks who wanted Aria to join them for some training, leading to Hana suggesting they all go along, including Balto's Pilgrimage party. They ended up spending the rest of the day in the training rooms with Shinra's combat personnel and the two Summoners' parties. It was the following morning, as they were trying to decide what to do after breakfast, when Reeve called Eden to tell him they needed to return to his office.

When Eden, Hana, and the rest of her Guardians (and Aria) returned to Reeve's office, Libby immediately jumped into Eden's arms while Reeve sat behind his desk looking tired and Tusati leaned against the front side of it to the side, looking almost perplexed. The group filed in and found places to sit or stand, Hana and Eden near the front of the desk in the chairs and the others around them at varying distances. Even Aeris and Sora were with them for this meeting.

"So, we've finished discussing and testing things, and as it turns out, this is going to be harder than I thought," Reeve told the group.

"In what way?" Hana asked, gaze wary.

"I was hoping to be able to modify their programming from a distance," the man replied, sighing heavily. "That was why I asked for Tusati's help. Instead, what I ended up finding out is that his era's technology and the current technology of both Gaia and Spira are so vastly intrinsically different that I can't hope to touch it from outside. That means I need to get right to their internal systems in their—lab, or town, or whatever it is now—to make any changes to their programming. Whether I need to get right to their central terminal or if a sub-terminal would do, I have no idea, and with where their base is located, that makes things very difficult, even without factoring in their combat state."

The others traded startled looks—until Karru asked, "Hey, wait a minute, if the technology is so different, how could you even know _how_ to re-program it, even if you _do_ get right to their central terminal?"

Reeve gave her a wryly amused look as the rest became apprehensive. "If I was anyone else, that would indeed make the task impossible," he told Karru. "But I have an ability in minor form which is called SND, or Synaptic Net Dive. If I can get to their systems, I can send my mind into them and manipulate them with sheer will to what I need them to be. Tusati already tested me, and when I told him Libby is the result of mine and Shelke's SND, he explained that it's highly likely the man who created these beings also had that ability. What we need now, though, is a plan to get to them, because we're both sure reprogramming them is the only way forward."

"Why is that?" Hana asked with a small frown.

"They would have to be capable of mass reproduction to have such vast numbers so readily," Tusati answered that time. "Which most likely means they have access to a very literal 'breeding terminal', which we know nothing about—capacity, storage, speed of development. Their combat force may be wholly, or nearly, fast-grown for aggression for the reason that they are, in fact, designated as 'expendable'. In addition to that, it is likely they have developed an entire society, which we have no idea the state of, whose reproduction terms may be completely different from the combat forces produced in the breeding terminal. This, however, creates a complication in the fact that it is very likely we will be facing an endless battle until they are re-programmed."

"Also, depending on the terms of the breeding terminal, it's likely initiating a battle will cause more to be produced to join it part-way through," Reeve added. The others paled. "It's not as simple as someone starting a fight and keeping their attention until I've gotten where I need to go, because these aren't weak opponents and will take time to defeat, giving the breeding terminal time to produce more to throw at us. We have the added problem that I'm sure I'm going to need Shelke's help, because her SND is more developed than mine and she's a fantastic channel and anchor. I don't want her in unnecessary danger."

"I also believe that Karru will be of use in this re-programming endeavor, as she was very easily able to adapt to my era's technology in order to access my Essence Sphere's chamber. Having her able to access and remove physical obstacles would be of great benefit to you, particularly should there be security systems tied to the terminals in the facility," Tusati added. "Though Karru is apparently a combatant, she may not be capable of acting in such a capacity while managing the devices around you."

"That means a guard force sufficient to protect the three of them if needed," Eden commented once Tusati had fallen silent.

"Our party," Koln immediately said.

"But how will we all get down there safely?" Hana asked in reply.

"Aeons and Summons are the best bet, so Hana and Eden," Aeris put in, head tipped slightly to the side. "Sending too many mortal, physical beings actually becomes detrimental in close quarters, so sending all of us to infiltrate isn't a good idea."

Hana and Eden traded questioning looks as Koln retorted, "You're telling us to readily abandon our Summoner! Actually, both our Summoner _s_!"

"Maybe not," Hana cut in before anyone else could speak. "And I actually think Aeris' thoughts on Summons and Aeons has greater application than just for those of us going into the facility. I agree our group should stay as small as we can make it, and because Eden has a huge number of Summons and Auron and Liarin are exceptionally tailored to this situation, he and I are the best combat and healing combination possible. Karru has also proven her ability in combat for times when she's free to help us, leaving only two actual non-combatants, Reeve and Shelke. But—"

"Actually, Shelke is almost as strong as Sora," Karru chirped. "So she'll probably help, too, if she feels she needs to."

Hana sighed faintly and said, "Be that as it may, we have the other side of things to watch out for, as well—the battlefield distraction so our infiltration goes unnoticed." She turned to look at Koln, Gamahri, and Sora. "You three are most definitely powerful combatants, people I would trust to lead the attack on that horde to keep them busy until Reeve and Shelke have done what they need to do. If a large enough force attacks them from the front, they're likely to leave the rear and the facility unguarded, so we'll actually need all our combat forces, or as many as we can muster without leaving anyone completely undefended, to attack them from the front if this will work."

"We _also_ need a force to come up behind them to keep them from being able to retreat to the facility, either due to running from the force they're facing or due to being called back by people in the facility," Eden threw in, and many pairs of eyes widened. "We can't afford to have them coming back to attack us once the ones who stayed there become aware of us. Basically, we need to be able to catch them in a pincers once they've all been lured out, or as many as we _can_ lure out. If they don't see Hana or Bismarck, they probably won't run, so that makes it more likely they'll take their chances. We may want to use Change on those of our group who are staying out there to fight so they don't wonder where the other half of our party is, though."

"You're saying we have to arrange a large-scale military operation which is being led by Summoners, is that it?" Reeve asked, looking faint.

"It would stand to reason," Tusati agreed, and Reeve shut his eyes. "There is no 'quiet' way to achieve this end, leaving only the other option—extravagance. By taking the battle to them, underwater, it is also more likely they would feel secure in their ability to end the battle both quickly and favorably. The one issue is in keeping so many people underwater for so long."

"Zack and Yufi have Mastered several dozen Underwater Materia, which basically gives up to eight people unlimited underwater breathing," Eden replied in a dry tone, making all the others turn to stare at him. "What?" he asked, seeing their shocked looks. "How do you think Hana and I stayed underwater for as long as we did on Liarin's back? It sure wasn't because she was creating air bubbles for us—she wasn't. We can also ask the free-roamers for help through Minerva."

"Free-roamers?" Karru asked in confusion.

"The Eidolons, or the Summons who aren't attached to Materia Shards," Aeris replied with a smile. "And I think that's a fantastic idea! I'll ask her right now!" She promptly lit with circling bands of green-white light.

"Regardless," Reeve put in, drawing all eyes back to him, other than Aeris'. "We still have the issue of needing to arrange for and gather forces here, and to do it quickly, before they realize what's going on. That means calling all the Summoners to New Midgar, and getting Yuna's help to spur the various Spiran militaries and the Terras to our assistance in a situation where they're strongly disadvantaged. That's not going to be easy—even Rufus wouldn't just throw his forces in without some sort of assurance."

"Are they—the creatures—able to access our communications?" Koln asked suddenly.

Reeve and Tusati traded looks, then Tusati replied, "We have no way of knowing, though it is unlikely unless they happen to witness a broadcast with open visual and vocal. My ability to access your technology is as limited as Reeve's is in accessing mine, leaving the likelihood of them being capable of accessing your technological transmissions very low. Speaking in a location where they have potential of hearing it—a ship upon the ocean, a beach, a dock—is far more likely to be detrimental than them having such access. Particularly as they seem to be actively seeking the locations of certain individuals, so are likely to be in those places to overhear what is being discussed."

"So, if all of you are going to go into battle, what do _I_ do?" Aria asked quietly.

"What do you _want_ to do, Aria?" Eden asked her curiously.

She blinked at him, then looked around at the others for a moment before looking back at him. "I want to help."

Eden leaned back to look at the Ronso and asked, "You seem to gain the most from her support, so would you like to keep her close in the battle, Gamahri?"

The bipedal, blue-furred cat eyed Aria for a moment before saying, "She suits."

At his agreement, he looked back at Aria and said, "So, there you have it. If you want to fight, stay close to Gamahri so the two of you can work off one another, and do your best to stay safe."

"Okay," the girl agreed.

"In that case, if we need to start gathering people, I should call Aunt Yuna to update her on what's going on and what needs to be done," Hana offered. "It's true she's the one who will set things in motion for probably over half of the pending combat force, and if she sends the request to the Summoners, they _will_ come. I think even the Terras will do it, but the sooner she knows to work on the forces at places like Luca and Bevelle, the better."

"And the Eidolons will help!" Aeris added cheerfully. "The creatures are apparently used to the Leviathans swimming around down there, so they can get very close without them paying any mind—they should be able to chart the best path in for the infiltrators. Those ones will also be a huge help in being able to come up behind the creatures. The other Eidolons just need to know when and where, and they'll come. Well, maybe not all—I don't think Hikari or others like her will do so, because nearly all the ones with stable, human-shaped forms count as defenders of their respective hometowns."

"Good, thank you, Hana, Aeris," Reeve told the two women gratefully. "In the meantime, I'll talk with Rufus, Godo, and Felicia, since they're the ones in control of our major combat forces on Gaia. All of you should get some rest and relaxation in while you can, as well as some training, because this stands to be a major battle."

"Oh, can I clarify something?" Aeris asked after a momentary pause as the others were rising.

"What's that?" Reeve asked her.

"Are we aiming to kill them or just distract them for awhile?" she questioned.

"Theoretically, the latter," Tusati answered in a distinctly dry tone. "In practice, however, until such time as they surrender, both."

The young woman blinked in surprise, so Reeve said, "That's true, Aeris. They need to believe we're launching a major attack on them with the intent to decimate them. As such, and because they'll be fighting to kill, it would be unreasonable to think our own people would survive if they refrained. Also, the creatures are quite intelligent enough to realize something's wrong if we _don't_ kill them after launching an attack supposedly for that purpose."

"I see. Okay, then—no need to hold back." Aeris then grinned and said, "I'd better go find Zack so I can work out how best to help him in battle!"

"What about _us_?" Koln pouted as Sora looked amused.

"You can come with me, and that way I'll know which people I especially need to watch for healing. No problem!" she grinned at him, and Sora chuckled as he stared in shock at her.

"When should we next meet?" Hana asked suddenly, looking amused, herself.

"When we have some idea of who will be here when," Reeve replied. "We should keep in touch in that regard, and when we have someone like Yuna or a group of our combat force due to arrive, we can then arrange a more formal meeting with the ones in charge of whoever just arrived."

"Fair enough," Hana agreed. "I'll return to my room to call Aunt Yuna, then."

She then turned and left, causing Koln to scramble after her as he called, "Hey, wait!"

The others chuckled, then followed the two of them out, even as Tusati returned to Eden.


	81. 77-Before the Battle

**A/N:** On time today!

Before the Battle

Karru hopped every few feet as she ran down the hall, using the leverage to test methods of movement in the air or to try to change directions. The latter really only worked if she had something near or in her path, like a wall, but the first was variable and normally depended on multiple factors, such as her speed and height. Even though she was doing that, she was actually on the VR room floor, heading for the combat-based room which had been designated to work through scenarios of combat with the creatures. It was on land and strongly based on the memories of her Pilgrimage group, but it was better than nothing, and it would be impossible to adapt it for underwater combat. Even Eden's memory from underwater barely touched the surface.

It had been a week since they had met with Reeve and Tusati, and since forces had begun gathering in New Midgar in preparation for the attack on their base. The week really had gone by quickly, and they'd gotten next to no rest, largely thanks the the very necessary training exercises they had to do. All of them had been kept busy, with very little time to think, either—there would be time for that again after the battle. Auntie Yuna had been instrumental in working out the training scenarios, and had even done a modified aerial attack scenario used by the jet fighters on the Terras to train for three-dimensional combat.

Most people never thought about it—when they were fighting on the ground, because they were seeing with depth perception which made things look three-dimensional, so they assumed it was. Actually, the battlefield was only two-dimensional in that case, because there was only a flat plain the battle could happen on, occasional additions from above aside. When fighting in the air or the water, the enemy could come up from literally anywhere—above, below, any side, or diagonals. _That_ was a three-dimensional battle, and it was what Auntie Yuna wanted to train everyone in as much as she could.

Today was the last day of training, and tomorrow was the scheduled attack on the creatures.

As she came down from a hop where she'd tried a flip, a voice asked in bemusement from behind her, "What are you doing, Karru?"

Turning, she blinked when she saw Aunt Sanni standing there. "I thought you wouldn't come," she commented to the older woman.

Her aunt's brow rose and she said, "I've been here since the first day you started training for the battle tomorrow." Karru blinked in surprise, but Sanni asked her in a rather hard tone, "So you think you should be joining in a battle like this, where your life is on the line?"

Before the Pilgrimage, she'd have gotten angry or scared, or both. Before she'd actually died, she still hadn't been completely aware of what battle was really all about. The battle at Erva Eyja and the subsequent tidal wave had broken the ice, snapped her out of her idealism, and the fiend in the Den of Woe had made her wary...But it had taken those creatures and the deaths in the battle on the way to Fjallheim, including her own, for her to realize her Aunt had been trying to protect her the whole time, in the only way she knew how.

At the realization that she wasn't either angry or afraid anymore, but instead warmed by Aunt Sanni's worry for her, she smiled, which caused the woman to blink. "I used to think you saying things like that was just a way to keep me from going out and having fun, you know?" The woman's eyes widened, and Karru stepped forward to give her a hug, which Sanni returned tightly as she drew in a trembling breath. "I know what we're going into, Aunt Sanni, and I know it better than _you_." She drew back to meet her aunt's eyes.

"I fought them on the way to Fjallheim, and again between Frelsa and New Midgar. In the first battle, if Eden hadn't realized what kind of enemy we were going up against, I _wouldn't_ have survived—they actually _did_ kill me until Final Attack and Revive activated," Karru told Sanni evenly, and for the first time, saw fear and pain in her expression. "I'm all you really have left of your close family...and I can't shake the memory as my vision went dark of the sheer—pain and loss and desolation in Hana's voice when she thought I'd been killed. I think everyone completely forgot Eden gave me that, so she reacted as though—as though it was over."

Before she could go on, Sanni pulled her into a tight hug as she said, "I've seen so many people I care about die, Karru! I didn't want to have to watch that same thing happen to you, but then you kept insisting you were going to throw yourself right into the middle of the danger!" Sanni told her fiercely, still hugging her tightly. "I didn't—I wasn't—" she paused for a moment, then drew in a shaky breath and told her niece, "I really thought keeping you restricted and incapable would keep you from walking that path, and every day since you pulled that stunt in the battle at Erva Eyja, I've been terrified of waking up to a message saying you were dead and I should claim your body. Assuming there was enough of you left for that." The woman paused again before releasing a faint sigh and admitting, "It's only now that I realize trying to stop you just made you more determined to do it. I'm sorry."

"Aunt Sanni, did you ever think the fact that you're always going out into battle is part of the reason I wanted to so badly? Or did you even realize I might have worried about you, too, when you went out to fight?" She felt the woman's shoulders sag somewhat in defeat, but pushed back from her so she could meet her aunt's gaze again. "This is my path because I've chosen it. And maybe you don't realize this, but I'm actually in the infiltration party, not the frontal attack or the rear pincers."

Sanni blinked in surprise, but Karru grinned and said, "Come on, let me show you what I can do now! I was heading to the training room anyway!" She proceeded to drag Sanni with her down the hall to the designated room, where she joined the practice session going on just then—it was the one she was supposed to have been part of, anyway. Sanni stayed at the door, watching her in something like shocked awe for a few minutes. After that, she lost track of the woman.

FoW

Eden was sitting on the designated sidelines for the room where the training session was taking place, observing how people in varying groups handled the creatures in battle. Yuna's idea to modify the combat to something like the aerial one—but she'd added more drag to it to make it closer to what it would be like underwater—had turned out to be a good one. Those who got the hang of things quickly were chosen as instructors as a sort for those who were having trouble, and as it turned out, most of those were the jet fighters and the blitzball players.

For the longest time, everyone from Gaia had thought blitzball to be nothing more than useless entertainment, but now...Seeing Tidus far out-perform Yuna at her own scenario idea made him re-think that definition for blitzball. Even Wakka out-performed Yuna due to his blitzball skills, and he normally couldn't best her, even if he was a very, very close equal. Back when they'd had the impromptu blitzball tournament at Erva Eyja, Zack had asked to participate, and his experience had obviously done him well, as he'd become one of the instructors of sorts for the training scenarios.

What annoyed him was how Karru was late—until he saw her come in with Captain Sanni just behind her. He'd been under the impression that Sanni was avoiding Karru on purpose, because this would be the first time they were meeting since Sanni and the Aeroterra had arrived the day after they had begun getting in touch with people. If Sanni had finally decided to talk with her niece, he could forgive the girl's tardiness, and she quickly made up for her lateness by pretty much annihilating the enemy forces in the first wave. If she wasn't with the infiltration team, she'd have been a prime choice for the rear pincers due to her natural ability to bypass their armor.

He returned to his observation, not realizing Sanni had moved until she said from right beside him, "It seems I owe you my thanks."

"For?" he asked in mild surprise, eyes still on the practice.

"...Karru told me what happened on your way to Fjallheim. She even freely admitted she wouldn't have survived if you hadn't been looking out for her. So thank you for keeping her alive."

"Okay," he agreed, brow furrowed a bit. "No offense, but I didn't really think you would care—you behaved like you'd completely washed your hands of her when she insisted she would be going with Hana on her Pilgrimage. Not to mention, you seem to take my existence as a personal insult."

Sanni was quiet for a long minute, then sighed. "I've watched nearly every member of my family die, and the few I didn't personally witness still ended up dead. Karru is all I have left, and—I didn't want to see her end up the same way. It wasn't that I had 'washed my hands of her', it's that I couldn't deal with the thought that one day soon I may be asked to retrieve her corpse for burial. About you...At the time, I had thought it was a piss-poor exchanged where we were pretty much giving up everything we were to you and not getting anything of value in return."

When she stopped, he turned to look at her, seeing a thoughtful expression on her face. "And?" he prompted.

The woman turned to look at him, meeting his gaze. "Realizing you freely gave Karru something to safeguard her life also made me realize the exchange wasn't as unequal as I had assumed, your side of the equation just took a different form." She reached up to gently brush her fingers over the blue earring he wore. "Yuna told me about how you got this." Again, she paused, dropping her hand back to her side. "It hit me then, to know what you suffered on our behalf, that I had been looking at the situation the wrong way from the start, and I'm sorry for my behavior towards you back then. I also apologized to Yuna for that."

"What 'wrong way' was there to look at it?" he asked dryly with a raised brow, then turned back to the practice as the second wave of enemies joined. "It was a fact that we essentially were strangers from who knew where with unknown goals and abilities, and that we were making changes to your whole world setup without your say. _Anyone_ would have been disoriented at best and angry and-or scared at worst."

"That's true," she agreed, sounding faintly amused. "But I was reacting like a spoiled child whose favorite toy had been taken away. And _you_ somehow _kept_ 'taking away' more and more of my 'toys'. In my mind, Yuna was 'letting' you, like favoritism, so I retaliated against _her_ , too. I didn't want to see what was similar about you or that Yuna was just doing what her own nature dictated. It was all...selfish. You provided us with knowledge and skills as freely as we offered them to you, but by and large, I was still stuck in that mindset for a long, long time. I can't stay in it anymore now that I'm seeing you working together so freely with us, doing things like giving Karru access to something meant to keep her alive."

Eden released a sigh and admitted, "Loss or a very close call tends to act as an eye-opener."

The two fell into a comfortable silence for several minutes as the second wave of the simulation enemies ended and the third began. Suddenly, Sanni said, "Karru told me she's supposed to be part of the infiltration group."

"She's supposed to be with Reeve, Shelke, Hana, and me to get into the facility so Reeve and Shelke can manipulate it from the inside. That was Tusati's idea—he's my second fayth, who happens to be from the same era as those creatures. Karru is the first person since then to actively be able to manipulate the technology of his era, so we're going to need her to do things like open doors and operate lifts for us." Libby suddenly jumped onto his shoulder, so he patted her head and asked, "Where were you _this_ time, Libby?"

"Move my fur just below my neck and see for yourself," she answered, sticking her tongue out at him. Sanni snickered at that, but Eden lifted his hand to shuffle her fur in the indicated place—and quickly found the green glow of a Materia there. When he touched it, he realized it was a Shield Materia, and Mastered, so he sent her a questioning look. "Reeve thought if I was going to go with you, I should at least be able to shield myself and others in the group, like him or Shelke. Or you and Hana and Karru. So, he modified my frame to have this slot for a Materia, and even though he gave me Shield for now, I can change it later if I want or need to. You like?"

"I do. Did you thank Reeve?" he asked her with a soft smile.

"Yup!" she agreed, rubbing her head on his cheek.

"When did she start sticking her tongue out at people?" Sanni asked in amusement.

"When Rikku was at Bevelle with us to train Karru in combat," Eden replied dryly. "Of course, Rikku made the mistake of coaching Libby to behave like an Al Bhed child, and it's only Shelke's modification to Libby's programming which keeps her mild. I don't actually mind the combination, and I think it gives Libby more depth of character." The words made Libby chuckle as Sanni gave her head an amused shake.

"Well, _I_ like it, anyway," the woman replied in amusement. "Take care, all of you, when you go in there."

Eden gave her a smile, then turned to the participants in the battle as the third wave ended. Jumping down from his perch, he made his way to Karru's side to tell the group how and where they could improve—and this particular group needed the tips badly, because they wouldn't have succeeded without Karru's help.

FoW

"Gamahri?" Aria asked of the Ronso when she saw him sitting by himself at a small table in the cafeteria. He looked up at her, then gave a nod towards the seat opposite him. Since it was an obvious invitation, she took the seat with her own meal, then eyed him for a moment, not sure if she should say anything.

After a couple minutes of watching her pick at her food, Gamahri solved the problem by saying to her, "Ask, or have no answer."

Sighing, the girl accepted the point, so nodded and asked, "Did you only agree to have me with you because Eden asked you to, so you could 'take care of me'?"

For a minute, the Ronso was quiet, but then he told her, much to her surprise, "Ronso never enter battle in such a way."

Her brow furrowed as she slowly questioned, "What does that mean? I mean, I know you don't really like to talk a lot, but..."

Gamahri paused, then told her, "Turks are strong. Eden is strong. Guardians are strong." He paused again, then motioned at her. "You are Guardian. You are strong. No favor is worth death."

When he wrinkled his nose and reached up to rub it, as he almost always did after saying 'so much', Aria suddenly asked, "Why do you keep reaching up to rub your nose after saying more than five or six words?"

"Vibrations make nose itch," he answered in annoyance, and Aria had to giggle.

She then returned to what he'd said, and replied, "But my whole group is dead, and I only survived because Freyra—a Turk—died to save me. I'm not strong. That's why I'm asking why you're doing this."

A tap on her shoulder made her start and look up—to see Tseng. She blinked at the Wutain Turk as he asked, "May I join you?" She looked at Gamahri, who inclined his head, and Tseng quickly sat with his own meal. "I happened to overhear what you said just now, Aria," Tseng told her bluntly, and she made a face.

"It's true, though," she reiterated.

"Only because you've chosen to believe it is," the man answered, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gamahri nod. "I'll put a few things into perspective for you, all right?"

"Something tells me I don't have a choice," she sighed faintly, feeling annoyed again, but not sure why.

"Not especially, little sister," the Wutain smirked faintly. She sighed again, and he told her, "Right now, you're resisting things you know to be facts because accepting them would also force you to stop feeling sorry for yourself. First, _just eight_ of you took on the _single largest_ group of those creatures ever recorded to have come ashore, and you _all_ survived. Our experiences are such that one person's weakness would have led to the whole group's deaths. Then, we have Eden, who makes a point to help improve the combat skills of someone he works with, something he's never done with you, has he?" Aria gave her head a shake, staring at him in stunned shock. "Combat-wise, you _don't need_ to improve."

Tseng then motioned at Gamahri. "The Ronso Tribe is very much a warrior race, and they don't make a habit of 'babysitting' weaklings in battle. If they did, that person would become a liability and make the battle much harder. For him to have accepted a form of battle partnership with you, it's _only_ because he feels you _will_ be a good partner in battle." Again, Aria saw Gamahri nod, but Tseng went on, "And let's not forget how many of my Turks—about half of them in all of a week—you've managed to one-up because they annoyed you too much. No matter how you look at it, Aria, you're strong. Stop feeling sorry for yourself or you'll be risking _all of us_ on the battlefield tomorrow, not just yourself."

When all she could do was stare at him in shock, he asked, "How did you like the tour the way we give it to trainee Turks, by the way?"

"It was really interesting, actually," Aria blinked. "I wondered what the difference was, but Hana asked the Turks who gave it to me why they had never gotten a tour quite like that before. One of them—uh, the really red haired one? I think his name's Reno? Anyway, he said they hadn't gotten it before because they weren't Turks or training to be them, so there wasn't really a reason for them to have gotten that version. That made Hana ask what was different about me, and he replied that their 'new sister had to know the ropes.' I'm still not sure I get it, though."

Gamahri chuckled faintly and told her, "Turks are like Ronso. They offer 'horns', too."

"They—what?" the girl asked in obvious confusion.

"Like the Ronso will build statues of Summoners with horns because they've been 'adopted' into the Tribe, the Turks have our own ways of 'adopting' someone," Tseng clarified. "We don't normally give a physical indication of that, unless you decide to become a Turk, literally, and wear our uniform. But, you're different from the others we've 'adopted', because of how you ended up with Eden—who is now your only guardian until you're ready to stand on your own. We're his family, which makes you ours by extension, and we're rather assuming that you're going to end up with Turk training, formality aside. So, we're starting early. That you found _our_ version of the tour interesting is actually a good sign. Did the rest of the group think the same?"

Aria made a face. "Aeris and Sora were sort of just there for the company. Koln didn't get anything about what we were being shown or why. Hana was sort of interested, but she thought it was also kinda boring. Karru liked it as much as I did. I never really got any idea of what Gamahri thought, and Eden wasn't there."

"Eden already ran the route with Reno, back the first time he and Yuna visited here once the building was mostly built," Tseng shrugged. "He _also_ found it fascinating, like _all_ Turks do. If Karru liked it, we may want to train her for Yuna's group—her technological ability will be very useful to their fledgling investigative team. But in your case, Reno suggested we give it to you just to find out if it would be worth formally training you, regardless of whether you end up applying to us. The results were a resounding 'yes'. You're a Turk, with or without the uniform."

"Just because I liked a _tour_?" Aria gaped. "You guys are crazy!"

Gamahri rumbled in amusement again, and told her, "During tour, you questioned." He paused before adding, " _Right_ questions. Tour boring. Fun to watch you." He then rubbed the bridge of his nose again with a faint sigh.

The girl blinked, apparently needing a moment to process Gamahri's words, then turned to look at an amused Tseng, who put an ID card down on the table and slid it over to her. When he moved his hand, she could see that it was ID in her name—and designating her as a Trainee Turk. She suddenly realized she was being invited to join the original Turks, not the ones they were training for Yuna, and knew taking the card he'd put in front of her was akin to accepting that status. When she met the Wutain's gaze, she also realized he was absolutely serious, and had no doubt she would benefit the Turks.

But, could she accept that? More like, could she do it so soon after her father's and Freyra's deaths?

The thought of Freyra drew her to Eden, to Kariya, and to Balto. Even Reno had paused to assure her that she wasn't at fault for Freyra's death, and that no one in the Turks held her to blame, at all. None of them were related to her by blood, but...just maybe they could be a very good family anyway?

Releasing a sudden breath, she carefully reached over and picked up the ID card, then looked up at Tseng questioningly. He smiled and nodded, and she suddenly felt a weight lift off her.

"Now bearing horn," Gamahri told her, reaching over to pat her head, clearly happy. "Strong. We fight together tomorrow."

"Thank you," she told both of them.

"We know better than anyone how 'weak' someone can feel after watching the deaths of people they care about," Tseng answered. "And we _also_ know those same survivors aren't at all weak. It's good to know you finally realize that. Take care of yourself tomorrow, all right? Your training with us won't start until this mess has settled down." Since he'd been eating the whole time they had been talking, he was done already, and was able to get up and head away at that point, giving her shoulder a pat as he went.

"Tomorrow..." Aria began with a soft sigh, then looked up to meet Gamahri's eyes. "You'll have to take care of yourself, too." He inclined his head in recognition.

Neither of them realized Yuna and Tidus had heard the entire exchange from a couple tables away, or saw them trade smiles which were partly amused and partly relieved.


	82. 78-Entry

Entry

It was before dawn when the infiltration team and the rear pincers groups slipped into the water and were met by Leviathans, who carted them quickly in a wide arc well outside the creatures' range. They would be waiting underwater with a couple of Leviathans, several Underwater Materia, and several Mirage Materia to make them invisible. They were to stay outside the designated battlefield until mid-morning, when the frontal attack—and the main party—initiated the assault. At that time, all of them would move forward, and only at the secondary entrance to the facility the Leviathans had found would they part ways.

The basic idea was for a small group to stay at the secondary entrance to guard the infiltration team's escape route while the rest of the rear pincers made their way to the actual battlefield. They were suddenly thankful for Karru and Shelke while they waited, because the girls incited them into an underwater game of tag so they kept moving. Them doing so also kept their bodies from cooling too much while they had nothing else to do, and it helped lighten the mood significantly. It was pretty dark down there, forcing all of them to use infrared goggles to 'see' one another by virtue of the body heat they produced, though Libby seemed to be able to see somewhat regardless—but while under the water, she just clung to Eden's shoulder.

When their vibration alarms went off to indicate their time to move forward, they began making their way quickly in the direction of the rear entrance, staying close to the ocean floor. It didn't take too long to get to it, where they had to quickly take out a few guards, but then the infiltration group was able to get into the entryway—where they were met with an automated system which closed it up behind them. As the room's doors and walls rotated, the water cleared out from the space they were locked into, then the opposite wall opened up, draining off the last of the water through the metal grate which made up the floor in the area beyond. Faintly, in the distance, they could hear alarms ringing.

All of them could see faint lighting in the area coming from lights along the floor, so they headed down the hall, Eden and Karru in the lead, Reeve and Shelke behind them, and Hana at the rear. While it was obvious the area had ventilation, it also wasn't a very long or large space, and stopped at a door Karru had to stare at for a couple minutes before she felt her eyes changing to let her see the panel to open the door. As she typed in the needed codes, she was suddenly thankful she'd had the experience with the door into Tusati's Essence Sphere chamber in Besaid Temple. Soon, the door opened quietly and they could move forward into a marginally better-lit hall which led to a larger chamber with four paths off it—the one they came from and three others.

It also had something which looked similar to a computer terminal there, in the corner across and to one corner of the room from where they'd entered. It also seemed to be active, but in 'sleep' mode because it wasn't being used right then.

"Is that what you're looking for?" Eden asked Reeve and Shelke.

"It looks like it's going to give us our initial answers, at least," Reeve agreed, moving over to it with Shelke following.

"This almost seems too easy..." the girl muttered.

"Don't count on that yet," Eden told her dryly, and Hana chuckled at the distressed expression on the younger girl's face.

Both Reeve and Shelke placed their hands on the computer-ish terminal and shut their eyes while Karru, Eden, and Hana stood guard over them. It took several minutes, but then both emerged from the trance-like state they'd been in, swayed, and eased themselves down to sit on the floor beside or against the terminal. The others looked at them for a moment, then traded looks, sighed faintly, and turned back to guard duty, letting Reeve and Shelke rest.

Finally, the older man said, "Well, on the good side, it's unlikely we'll be noticed or attacked until we get to the mainframe, but on the other, we _have_ to be there to make any changes."

"...And how do you know this?" Hana asked curiously, facing the man and girl beside him.

"We just looked around passively at first," Shelke put in, still sounding tired. "It's hard to work with, this technology. But we realized we'd be better off staying passive once we saw what we were actually working with. We don't have to keep hacking doors with Karru, and we're actually better off opening them, stepping through, and closing them behind us. We're in maintenance paths right now."

Eden and Karru traded puzzled looks, then Karru asked, "So?"

"Maintenance workers open and close the doors all the time, and these routes are little-used ones which go right down to the central system terminal," Reeve answered, getting his bearings and rising. "Since Karru can open up the doors roughly the same way any other maintenance worker would, closing them again would help ensure our passage goes unnoticed until we're at the door which was never supposed to be opened—the one leading to the central terminal. Getting into that room will be hard at best and...well, I think we all know the 'worst', and I'd rather not voice it. Between us, we should be able to open it reasonably quickly, but that's also when we stand to be attacked for the first time. If we can all hold our strength in reserve until then, that's much better than using it on the way."

Hana nodded and said, "Karru, go close the door we just passed through."

"Sure," the younger girl agreed, heading back the way they'd come to shut it. She rejoined them soon after and asked, "So, which way next?"

"Straight through," Reeve replied, offering a hand to Shelke to help her up, which the now ten-year-old took gratefully.

Karru headed for the named hall, finding it descended a fairly long flight of stairs before ending at another door. Again, she waited for her eyes to shift to see the panel she needed, then opened up the door so she and the others could step through, then shut it right away once they'd passed. Reeve directed them down the hall, about a quarter of a way around a very large circle, down again, along another hall, around another quarter of circle on a circle smaller than the first one, and on twice more on two more smaller circles. Since they'd only gone a quarter of the way around on each circle, they had effectively done a spiral taking them back to the same direction they'd begun on.

It was obviously a large facility, and even the smallest of the four circles was massive, leaving them rather exhausted by the time they descended the last flight of stairs and down the hall to the final circle. However, it was then that they needed to leave the paths they were on, and everyone besides Reeve and Shelke seemed to be puzzled by how they were supposed to do so when there had been no doors off the paths they were on.

"The marks on the walls are doors out of the maintenance paths," Reeve told them dryly as he pointed at the mark on the wall right in front of them where they stood at the entrance (or exit, depending on one's point of view) to the hall which had led them to the last circle.

The others traded shocked looks, then Hana asked in amazement, "Are you saying we've passed dozens of doors—those weren't just decoration?"

"That's it exactly," Reeve agreed dryly. "Which also means Karru should be able to find the panel to open the one right in front of us."

"Man, this place is massive..." Eden sighed as Karru approached the wall curiously. "I wonder if we should take a ten-minute rest break before going for the final door..."

"If you think you need to, you should," Shelke agreed, looking at him. "Ten minutes won't matter much to the ones outside, and if it means you, Hana, and Karru are better ready to fight, that will help. A lot."

"One question," Hana suddenly asked, and the others—except for Karru, who was typing on a panel at the door—turned to her in surprise. "If these creatures breathe water, why is this facility full of air?"

"The technology isn't waterproof," Reeve replied. "The one who originally created this place was also human, and needed air to breathe when he came here."

"So we don't have to worry about them sending a deluge at us?" she asked curiously.

"Most likely not," Reeve agreed. "Though, before we got this far—"

He was cut off as Karru said, "Door's open."

"—it would have been a real danger, because the isolated cell blocks could each have been flooded independently. Hence the other major reason we were better off not being noticed until now," Reeve finished as Shelke trotted over to the open door, through which a lot more light shone.

Eden and Hana nodded at Reeve, then all three followed the younger girls into a brightly-lit and very wide hall. They came out at the head of an obviously 'Grand Staircase' leading down to a wide, open space and a highly-decorated door which reminded all of them of Besaid's lower levels. Karru shut the door behind them as they looked around the area, seeing 'people' rushing by some distance away, where the hall at the top of the stairs crossed another, large hall which was obviously public territory. The alarms were also louder there, and the people they could see obviously weren't children. Quickly, they moved far enough down the stairs to not be seen by anyone passing, then looked over the top stair to observe them.

These ones were different from the warriors. It was obvious such was the case because they weren't wearing the armor, so their features were readily visible. They weren't hunched, just to start, making the others wonder if their armor was actually heavy enough to have unintentionally given the people on the surface a handicap. That being the scary thought it was made them reassess what they were looking at for the actual state of the race. By doing so, the comparison to a frog, or to the Hypello, was also inaccurate, and therefore incorrect.

Rather, they had more similarity to a cross between a fish and an octopus, with the smooth, somewhat slimy skin found on an octopus (the interior humidity made perfect sense), extremities which were oddly like tentacles without suction cups, and almost fish-like faces on a globe-like head and small, fish-finned tails. They were mostly orangey, peachy, silvery, or faintly blueish in color, though a few they saw went into tans and browns as well. As far as mechanical and prosthetic components went, all of them showed signs of them, normally hands or legs, but some also showed obvious metal parts on their necks and heads. Since these ones wore actual clothes (made out of what, the humans couldn't tell), it was impossible to tell if the rest of their bodies had parts which were metal, and any internal parts were just guesses at best.

"Well, I'll be," Reeve muttered in fascination. "A literal new race, which seems to mostly be like any other race in an emergency."

All of them moved further down the stairs and sat, all but Karru, who headed down to the door to examine it. Since the stair was easily twenty-five feet wide and the platform at the bottom was as wide and long, it was a large space to defend. Especially when the large door was half the width of platform space.

"This is going to be a defensive nightmare," Eden commented, tapping Libby. "Stay with Reeve or Shelke, okay, Libby? I don't want you getting hurt in this fight."

"Okay," she agreed, jumping over to Shelke to snuggle against her neck.

"What's a defensive nightmare about this?" the older man asked in puzzlement.

Hana and Eden traded bemused looks before Hana said, "Let's just start with the fact that the enemy has the high ground unless we can stop them at the head of the stairs. That gives them a significant advantage. And the space we need to guard, just to guard the door, is over twice as wide as what two people could feasibly guard with no enemies getting through."

Karru rejoined them as she pouted and said, "The door has four panels to get it open. I can do the two at the middle, but I can't do the two at either outer edge. Basically, it takes no less than three people to open this door."

After a long moment of silence, Shelke said, "I think we can access them with SND if we know where to put our hands down..."

Nodding, the half Al Bhed said, "Then that's our best bet to get them open. Once they are, you two can head in while I turn back to help Eden and Hana guard the doors. But yeah, that space is going to need probably five just to guard it right. And that's if they don't start picking us off from above. If we try to guard the head of the stairs, we'd need, like, ten people. Aeons. Summons. Whatever." Shelke began giggling at her for not knowing what term to use there.

Hana and Eden traded looks, then Eden said, "We know Odin and Cygnus are combat types, and Cygnus is ranged. Seraph is largely a healer, and Bismarck—should probably be kept as our last resort."

"Likely, also because her Bolt Storm would stand a good chance of damaging computers we don't want her to damage at this point," Hana agreed quietly, thinking. "That mostly leaves the rest of our support from the other Summons you have."

"And I can't call an infinite number of them. Though Alexander, my Odin, and Ramuh would be a good start. Since Ramuh's lightning is more controlled than Bismarck's, he's more practical to begin with. Do you want me to call for Seraph right away?"

"No, only if we find we need to have an extra healer. I'll mostly keep back for that reason, and call Odin out right away. You...can call an Aeon and a Summon at the same time, yes?"

"Pretty much. Cygnus and...?"

"Ramuh. Especially if we first want to try to hold the head of the stairs."

"Which we do. And Karru to guard you once she's done with the door."

"No, to keep any of them from getting _past_ me."

"Then I'll just fade to shadow-form once I'm done with the door. Am I leaving it open or closing it behind Reeve and Shelke, by the way?" Karru threw into the rapid discussion of their best plan of defense of the door.

The others turned to blink at her in surprise, then Eden asked, "Reeve, is there anything in that room which can kill you, like the air suddenly being shut off or a special defense system?"

"Not that I was able to tell, though cutting off the air flow would be doable," Reeve replied. "Though, with the general size of the room, it would take us several hours to die by suffocation, so I doubt it would prevent us from being able to reverse it before it became deadly."

Hana and Eden traded looks, then Hana looked at Karru and said, "That means your best bet is to close the door behind Reeve and Shelke, which would both make your task of guarding it easier, and of getting to any enemies who get past me before they can get it open. You stay on this side, though, Karru."

"Okay, I can do that," she agreed. "When do we start?"

Again, the two Summoners traded looks, then Eden asked the younger girl, "Have you rested enough to manage whatever battle we're about to get ourselves into, or do you need a bit longer?"

"I'm fine, lots of energy!" she grinned. "My legs also recovered from that long walk."

He nodded. "In that case, we can start now. You three go down to the door to do your parts, and we'll do ours up here."

With agreement from the three going to the door, they headed down and Karru positioned Reeve's and Shelke's hands over the two distant panels only she could see, told them what commands she knew would open the doors, and made her way to the crease between the two. Her hands went up to a panel on either side of the crease, and she began typing as her two helpers closed their eyes and focused. They worked as quickly as they could, but even after a minute of their attempt to unlock the door, it still wasn't open—and a new alarm had begun ringing. Right above them.

Trading looks, Hana and Eden nodded, then the blond teen made his way up to the head of the stairs to face the crossing hall beyond. The people rushing around had stopped and turned to stare—and promptly panicked and scattered when they saw him. He just gave an amused grin as he summoned Cygnus and Ramuh, and Hana's Odin appeared at his side as well. The four waited patiently for the attack they knew was coming, and sure enough, only a couple minuted later, the scratching-pounding of metallic feet headed in their direction. Vaguely, Eden noted Karru cursing in frustration at the door, but had no further time to think about it.

There were the soldiers, coming around the corner so fast they actually slid a few feet. These ones also looked somehow—wrong. It was Tusati-as-Cygnus who answered the question was he commented, "Well, that is significantly disturbing. It appears their production system is capable of releasing an incomplete and unsustainable soldier from development."

"Meaning?" Auron-as-Odin asked from his other side. The soldiers charged down the hall at them.

"These are—so ill-formed they are yet partially little more than pond slime, collections of genetics which have not had time to take form into proper skin, arms, eyes, or other parts," Cygnus answered.

"Weak?" the other Aeon asked.

"Desperate and insane with pain," the scientist Aeon rephrased. "They have nothing to lose and no sense of self. Rather, they are the single most dangerous group we have fought to date, and will likely only live for an hour or two, whether we kill them or not."

" _How morbid,_ " Ramuh commented. " _Then, our best action is to end them quickly._ "

"That would have been true anyway, Ramuh," Eden replied dryly, then lifted his sword and yelled, "Incoming!" as he shot forward to attack the first ones to arrive in range.

Cygnus and Odin were quick to join him as Ramuh scattered lightning across the ones to his side of the stairs, causing them to fall in droves.

"Yes! Finally!" Karru shouted behind and below the battle, as the massive doors grated open slowly several feet. There was a pause as Reeve and Shelke, with Libby still clinging to her shoulder, ran into the room, then Karru quickly swiped at the nearest panel she could reach, and the direction of the doors' motion reversed. Soon, it had closed entirely, and Karru was nowhere to be found.

That was when the battle began in earnest, when the creatures realized their mainframe had just been compromised. It was also when Eden and Hana both realized they needed more than just her to heal them, otherwise Cygnus and Odin would be forced back to their Summoners much too soon. Eden summoned Seraph and Carbuncle—and a second Carbuncle joined his soon after. He was fairly sure it was Karru's, and both of the two were needed just then, because they had to keep re-shielding the fighters too quickly for one alone to keep up with the demand.

They were in for a tough battle, that was for sure.

FoW

Outside, in a small, submarine-like vessel which looked more like a shark than a submarine, two men watched the battlefield from the sidelines, looking for all the world like any other shark—which were gathering and waiting for the time to feast on the death. And people were dying, not just the creatures. It was taking longer than expected for the team inside the facility to do what they needed to do, and that had been one of the most uncertain parts of the operation in the first place. With the support they'd gotten, the leaders of the assault had chosen to hold a group back for each the main group and the rear pincers so fighters would be able to rotate off and rest.

Their job, in the submarine, was to keep Command notified of how things were going as the battle progressed, but to date, they hadn't seen much besides an addition of a new group of fighters from the facility—a large group which had done some fairly serious damage to their numbers. Most problematic was how they had managed to force a number of the Summons and Aeons back to their Summoners, though thankfully most of the Summoners were still alive. Combat personnel died in battles, everyone knew that, and had prepared for it, but the numbers were really starting to add up, and it was people like Genesis and Sephiroth and Yuna and Tidus who were making the biggest impact.

When the new arrivals on the enemy's side had joined the fray, it hadn't taken long for Felicia and Vant to switch to their other, more powerful forms, which still had mass amounts of power, even when diminished some by the restrictions of the water. That and the free-roaming Eidolons had been what had saved them and given them a chance to regroup.

Finally, when it was just past noon, the watchers noted how a fair group of the creatures had tried to turn back to the facility—not to flee the battle, but in reaction to something inside which they were trying to get to. The pincers group cut them off with the Leviathans, causing an attack of pure rage from the creatures, and if those hadn't been their strongest and most capable underwater fighters, they would have been dead.

"Command, this is Dead Shark," one man said into the vessel's cross-ship communication system as the two grinned in relief at one another.

"Dead Shark, this is Command. What news have you got for us?" the man on the other end asked. Was his name Lizard? Lazard? It was something like that, but neither man knew, since they'd been borrowed from the Fahrenheit's crew.

"Looks like the team inside finally stirred up some trouble—a group of the creatures tried to get back inside and were furious at not being allowed. Looks like time's counting down now," the man in the small submarine filled him in.

A relieved sigh sounded and the man on the other end said, "That's the best news we've had since the battle began. The battle should now be finite, and it's just a matter of riding it out. Keep to your observation and let us know if anything else changes so we know if we need to send the last elite force."

"Are you even going to _need_ to send it?" the man in the vessel asked in surprise.

"If Felicia and Vant have transformed, then yes, we will have to before this battle is over—even for people with SND, re-writing an entire massive operating system with new parameters is going to be exceedingly difficult and will likely take over an hour by itself," the man at Command replied dryly. "Our current fighters will need the support before then."

"Got it, then. We'll keep to drifting at the edges and let you know if anything else of note happens," the one in the submarine agreed. "Dead Shark out."

"I'm suddenly glad I'm not out there fighting," the other man commented dryly, pointing to a very, very _large_ shark which had joined the ones circling the edges of the battlefield.

"Wonder if we'll be able to retrieve any of our fallen comrades before those guys chew them up..." the first muttered with a sigh.

"Probably not all of them," the second replied with a faint sigh as well.

There was still more of the prolonged battle to come, so both turned back to their observation of the battlefield. And they began to wonder if they'd soon even be _able_ to see any changes to it through the floating blood which had attracted the _real_ sharks to the area.


	83. 79-System Process

System Process

Reeve, Shelke, and Libby got into the room where the central computer mainframe was—the place where they would have to make the changes they needed to—and had to pause to stare. There were obvious computer terminals all the way around the outside, circular wall of the large chamber, most of those extending nearly to the vaulted, domed ceiling, but the central terminal...It was almost more like a spire or mountain, larger at the bottom and narrower at the top, where it quite literally attached to the ceiling. Most of the room's lighting came from the various terminal screens or lights around the room, and it was fairly chilled in there. Not enough to be harmful to either Reeve or Shelke, but much cooler than the rest of the facility, nonetheless.

"So...The central one?" Shelke asked timidly from his side.

Releasing a faint sigh, he nodded and said, "It's the one most likely to give us full access, whether it's the one storing the data we need to change or not. Libby, if you would, please keep an eye on the surroundings, just in case there's some sort of internal security system we couldn't find from the other terminal we looked through?"

"I can do that," Libby agreed.

He led the way to the central terminal and examined some of the screens and lights before saying, "Try that one, Shelke," as he pointed to one screen and keyboard off to the side of his, further around the side of the central 'tower' terminal. She moved to it to examine it while he checked the others around the 'tower' until he found the one which seemed to call to him, then asked, "Are you okay there, or does your SND disagree with it?"

"No, mine actually doesn't seem to care—it just wants to link in _somewhere_. Badly," she replied in faint, wry amusement.

He chuckled and nodded, placing his hands on the keyboard in front of him, then said, "Well, let's get in there, then."

She also put her hands on the keyboard in front of her, and they both closed their eyes as they reached their minds out for the terminal electronic systems. Diving was always a little painful at first, especially when being done the way they were currently doing it, with no link-in help. Mostly, they lacked the 'help' from the system because the system was different technology, a different computer, and didn't know them. Often, the two would land in different places, but this time, somehow, they both landed in the same one, standing side-by-side at the gateway into a city made of digital data which looked like glowing circuit boards. It had lines in neon blue, green, and red-orange, all in different areas and crossing at various intervals on the way to the central, and largest, tower of the 'city'. Most of the buildings and streets were in blue, the streets in green, and various red lines crossing both of the other two.

"Looks like Midgar. Think we can ask it for a taxi?" Shelke quipped in amusement.

He had to chuckle. "I hope so!" Reeve agreed, then looked out at the 'circuit city' again. "This was, and is, a shockingly sophisticated system, though. There's a good chance there will be defenses, even if we _can_ get a ride to the central processing unit."

"So do we know what the color coding is for the data stream types? Because it would be easier to ask for a taxi if we knew which one would allow the communication for it," the younger girl pointed out.

Nodding, the man said, "My first impression was that the red-orange color was security-related, and blue was the foundation. That would likely mean green does everything else, like providing data taxis. In the CPU, we'll have to manipulate the coding in the blue lines, so we need to find where in there they're coming from."

"...I'm suddenly really thankful we can change coding with force of will," the girl sighed faintly, noting the red-orange line right in front of the two of them, blocking their passage into the city. She crouched and put her hand on the line, coaxing a segment of it to 'open' and let them in, which resulted in turning several feet of the line green.

"So green indicates an open path in the security system, too," Reeve assessed as the two crossed the green segment of the line. Soon after, it turned red-orange again.

Again, it was Shelke who touched a green line, that time asking for 'an approved transport to the CPU'. A platform appeared in front of them, hovering above a blue line leading right to the main building in the 'city', and was edged with green. Shelke grinned as Reeve gave her an amused look, then the two climbed onto it and let it carry them safely past the 'city's' security lines. At the entrance to the CPU, however, it stopped, and it was clear by the red-orange lines criss-crossing the door that they would have to work to get in.

The entry door actually wasn't that hard to work with, and it was more an issue of finding their way through the building. Very quickly, they realized they would have to find 'back doors' into the CPU, because all the rest of the area was a dead-end maze which could only be bypassed through said hidden doors which also bypassed security. Without their ability to use SND, it would have been a much more difficult hacking job, but they could make good progress just by asking the system to show them where the doors were.

Finally, they came to a room with a four-foot-tall tower in the middle of it, and from it originated every single blue, green, and red-orange line in the 'city'. Those lines ran right up the sides of the pillar to the top, where there was a small knob of light in glowing white. It was obvious the white knob was the thing they'd have to directly modify to change the basic data imprints in the creatures.

"...So, what are we re-writing? Even if we erase the old data, if too many things are missing from the new data, we'll still have problems," Shelke commented.

For a moment, the older man was quiet, but then he asked, "Do you think we have the right to be dictators, Shelke?"

"What do you mean? We came here to stop them, after all."

"We did, but...It's one thing to give them new knowledge, but another entirely to dictate the way they choose to live. Part of their problem is actually with this system currently dictating to them, not just providing information...So, do you think we have the right to _dictate_ to them?"

"...Are you saying we should update their data, and give them back their free will, rather than making the system transfer non-aggression codes to them?" the girl asked him with a blink.

"I think that would be the best way to save _their society_ , without completely obliterating their defenses against monsters," the man answered evenly.

After a silence to think about the words, Shelke nodded and said, "Then, I'll leave that to you and just make sure you can do it the way you need to."

He nodded and gave her head a gentle pat in thanks, then both reached out to the pillar to touch the white knob, which was a bit of a stretch for Shelke.

With a deep breath on both their parts, they accessed the system there, Shelke acting as channel and defender as Reeve began re-working the coding for the OS.

FoW

Libby wondered as she held onto Shelke's shoulder if there would be an actual danger in the room, or not. Reeve had obviously felt there wouldn't be, beyond having their air cut off, but she wasn't so sure—it was an illegal lab to begin with, and had obviously been well-protected. Since no 'people' were allowed in the room, not even maintenance crews, it was safe to say something else would need to be in place to protect the system. The tricky part would be in the security system not damaging the rest of the computer consoles in the room, which would be a difficult feat with the number of them. Defenses on the walls were pretty much out of the question, since those would almost invariably catch some of the consoles in the cross-fire.

A look at both of the humans showed closed eyes and deep breathing as though in sleep, and they were both pretty much as stiff as boards, or as statues. It was likely they would be like that for awhile, so she hopped onto the console in front of Shelke, being careful not to land on any of the buttons or switches.

If the walls were out of the question, where else could a defensive system be? She thought back to the combat lessons Eden had given Karru, and made a mental list of things he had explained, ears twitching slowly as she processed the data for a new purpose now. Her mind (or what served as her mind, though she was sure now that it was similar enough to a human's to be referred to the same way) kept jumping back to the lessons about being aware— _fully_ aware—of one's surroundings. As she pondered the point, she began gazing around the room, not just at obvious things, but at less obvious things.

Well, more appropriately, it wasn't 'less obvious things', it was things which were so familiar, basic, and standard that most people didn't think of them.

She again noted the walls, the consoles...the door...The floor? The ceiling? She hadn't thought of either of those. There didn't seem to be anything odd about the floor, though, so she looked up at the ceiling instead, noting how there were many small tiles which didn't really look like they were attached to one another. That could have been a design issue, but by checking the images of the ceilings in the rest of the facility, the small, square panels on the ceiling, each about six inches by six inches, were unique to the current room.

By climbing the tower of the central console, she was able to see around it to most of the ceiling—and it was a good thing she was looking, as several of the panels, in random places around the room, swung open all at once. As something began dropping down out of them, she immediately tapped into the Shield Materia she wore and cast on Shelke, then Reeve, then herself.

She had only moments to spare as the first volley of something 'like' laser beams shot from what she now knew were a type of gun turret. While they were impressive feats of technology, Reeve had told her Shelke's Shield Materia, and all the others produced off it, were singularly unique, and had evolved to Shield against laser weapons. If it was true and the girl had come out of a place as horrible as everyone described Deepground to be, the shift in her Shield made sense—and was singularly useful just then.

And thankfully, Libby didn't have to keep putting up Shields faster than she could cast them—they lasted through several strikes. She wondered if these were such primitive versions of lasers that they were actually somehow weaker than the ones she was familiar with...Since it was a boon, though, she wasn't going to complain.

FoW

It was a good thing Shelke had taken up a defensive stance, because her shielding was the only thing which saved both herself and Reeve from a massive electrical surge which would have obliterated their minds otherwise. It seemed the system _was_ actually going to try to purge them before they could do more, and the girl had to keep her mind on the shield as the system tried to purge them three more times. Suddenly, on the fifth—it stopped mid-electrical surge, dropping the attack when it was only half complete.

Across the pillar from them, a projection of a man appeared, one who looked harder and harsher than Tusati, who asked the man in puzzlement, "Who are you? You are not my creator. Why are you able to do as he does?"

After a startled pause, Reeve replied, "It's been ten thousand years, and your creator has long since died. My name is Reeve. Both Shelke and I have a rare ability known as SND, or Synaptic Net Dive, which we suspect your creator also had."

The projection was quiet for a minute, then said, "You have come to destroy us. We have lost the war."

"No," Reeve said, giving his head a shake. "Both your creator's people and the people he had directed you to attack no longer exist. There was never a 'win' or a 'lose' when the participants aren't around anymore. The world has vastly changed since then, and the people here now aren't your enemies—we're only fighting you because you keep attacking us. But in the time you've been trapped down here, you've also developed your own society and culture, with people who are living out their lives without harming anyone. What I want is for you to stop dictating to your people to live based on a pending war they no longer need to fight, and after that, we just need to take care of the soldiers grown for aggression. The rest of your people are in no danger."

"...What are you asking of me? What are the changes you seek to make?" the projection asked slowly.

"The first is to update your system with the data and knowledge we brought so all your people know the _actual_ state of affairs in the world. The second is to let them have their free will, with the ability to ask you for guidance if they wish, but not where you determine their lives for them automatically. If there's no need to prepare them for war, dictatorship shouldn't be necessary as long as society is still functioning. And finally, rather than speed-growing your soldiers the way you have been, let them develop by the same terms and speed as your civilian population," the man explained.

"You do not demand their production halt entirely?" the program asked, seeming surprised.

"There are still fiends and monsters in the world, so there's a legitimate need to have some people skilled in combat," Reeve replied in a dry tone.

For over a minute, the projection was silent, then it seemed to release a deep sigh before replying, "Very well, give me the new knowledge you wish my people to assimilate. We shall then work to modify that which needs to be modified."

"Thank you," Reeve agreed with a smile. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Name? Oh, my designation. Artificially Intelligent System Manager," the projection replied.

"Uh...That's not a name..." Shelke murmured apprehensively, gaze sad. The projection's gaze moved to her in something like question, so she elaborated, "You have self-awareness as an AI, you're a person in a way, with your own thoughts and feelings, and the ability to decide for yourself different actions or new actions. You need a name."

"And I wouldn't advise taking your creator's name," Reeve added in a dry tone.

The projection just stared at the two of them for several long minutes before saying, "I have already inherited his appearance. I have no desire to inherit his designation as well. If my current designation is not sufficient under the new terms we must install, I must then ask instruction on how to formulate an alternate designation."

Reeve chuckled and said, "We'll definitely get to that, but for now, I suppose we can call you Aism, until we can finish re-writing the system functionality requirements and have free time to explain the naming system to you."

"...Aism? How droll. And disgusting," the projection replied, actively looking annoyed by the name. Shelke and Reeve both grinned at his reaction. "In the interests of expediency, it shall suffice for the moment. However, it _will_ be changed later."

"Of course. Now for the hard part—working out the appropriate terms and coding," Reeve agreed, smiling first, then turning serious.

FoW

Eden was right in the thick of the fighting with whatever Summons and Aeons he could access, and from her position, Karru could barely see him. She'd realized he frequently called multiple Summons—and even both of his Aeons—as a matter of course. Most others were limited to one, but for some reason, he could just keep calling more and more of them, all at once (1). Why was that? He didn't even seem to realize he was doing something unusual! Several steps above her, Hana seemed to be oddly agitated, but it made sense—even with Seraph's help, she could barely keep up with the healing.

Odin—likely because Auron had a soft spot for Eden—had taken to guarding the blond Turk's back, and in the press of the creatures, his doing so had saved the younger man more than once. Of course, Eden had returned the favor for Odin more than once, as well. Sometimes, the creatures reached Hana and she was forced to fight them around her healing, making Seraph's presence much more important. And sometimes, others got past the group at the top of the stairs and were too far from Hana for her to stop.

Those were the times when Karru acted to kill them quickly and cleanly. The stairs and the platform below them was littered with bodies, and the stench was horrible! She had never actually smelled anything so awful, not even in the Den of Woe, where many of them had been dead. Her only guess was that the 'half-formed' nature of their current states was to blame for the smell, simply _because_ they weren't actually viable, weren't put together right.

Even if Reeve and Shelke were successful, would these ones stop fighting? Would they be _able_ to? She was pretty sure by the desperation they fought with that they were insane with pain, and lashing out because they had no other outlet.

Or maybe, fighting meant dying sooner, which would end their suffering. It wasn't unreasonable to think they were effectively trying to suicide without offing themselves, literally. Sora had explained to her that a lot of people had survival instinct too strong to just give up and kill themselves, so someone else would need to help them or do it for them. Others weren't physically capable of doing it, so needed help. Maybe because these beings were only half-formed, they actually _weren't physically_ capable of killing themselves, either, because their brains weren't developed enough for them to realize that would be faster and a lot less hassle for them?

When Karru realized what her thought pattern had become, she pulled a disgusted face and muttered, "Ugh, I _definitely_ need a break from the battlefield if I'm seriously thinking about how a bunch of—pretty much doomed infants—should, or couldn't, kill themselves..."

Turning her attention back to the battlefield, she noticed a couple more creatures slip past the fighters and Hana, so she moved to attack them. It only took her half a minute to reach and kill both, then face the head of the stairs again. She suddenly had a bad feeling, and Eden had told her several times to listen to her instincts, so she abandoned her post to slip past the fighters and aim for where she felt the problem was.

Past the battle zone...There was a squat, fat machine with three long 'antennae' which had extended upwards nearly to the ceiling of the hall. One looked like an eye of a sort, and the other two—looked like guns! Quickly, she dove at the machine, jumping onto it and cutting off its eye stalk (she was _so_ thankful for the magi-tech daggers she was using!), then quickly trying to find a control panel she could operate it from. The machine tried to throw her off, so she braced herself—and found the panel she needed near its back end. Once she had it open, it didn't take her long to re-program it, though all she really wanted was for it to shut down so it couldn't attack.

Once it had, she turned back to the battle and the doors—only to see the doors sliding open!

Her eyes widened and she sprinted to the nearest wall to head back to the doors, knowing she would be too late—

Only for Shelke to land on a creature near the stairs, about to descend them. The girl looked up to meet Karru's gaze as she grinned and said, "We _have_ to finish this up, then it's over. I can help now—and it _does_ have to be that these ones are all killed, they can't be salvaged, not with how early the system let them out because the ones on the battlefield couldn't return. The system even admitted to that error in judgment. But, they shouldn't be aiming to get into the room to get to anyone there anymore, so it should be easier now."

"Is anyone still in the room, then?" Karru asked in amazement, then spun to attack one more of the creatures.

"Reeve is still there with Aism—I'll explain later. Libby and I came to help here so it'll go faster," Shelke agreed.

With a nod at the girl, Karru turned back to the battle, launching herself into it actively, and was followed closely by the younger girl. It was vaguely amusing to her to know she and Shelke fought in nearly the same way, and between the two of them, the creatures were falling in droves. And someone who wasn't her Carbuncle kept Shielding them, so she figured it had to be Libby, as everyone else was accounted for.

Karru sighed faintly and hoped the battle _really would_ be over soon.

FoW

Out on the battlefield, it was easily best described as chaos. Yuna looked around warily for one of the creatures which had slipped past her, then kicked her feet to push herself upward, above some of the worst of the blood in the water. She had never been more thankful for the Underwater Materia which allowed them to be underwater without needing to take in the water for oxygen—with the blood, that wouldn't go over well. As much as they'd been able to, they'd sent people back to the surface for medical care before they'd died, but the death toll had still been higher than she had been hoping for. People like Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal, Zirconaide, and Chaos were huge helps, but most of them had exhausted themselves as well, and it was mostly Sephiroth helping them after he'd returned from a rest.

In its own right, when she saw the third wave coming from her new position, she was thankful for how few deaths they'd managed. The third wave bothered her, though, as it came up about an hour after some of the creatures had tried to go back to the facility. As she mused on that, Tidus swam past her as he made the motion she knew meant he wanted the original Guardians and her to launch a mass assault on the new group to reduce their numbers early—until then, they had been holding back somewhat.

She was about to follow him, knowing it would be a good idea—but Kaillyr's voice in her mind said, _:Stay.:_

 _:They need my help!:_ she returned to him urgently.

 _:No, they do not,:_ he replied in a dry tone. _:And you need to hold your strength for just a short time longer. Rather, find the Beloved Child—I believe you know her as Aeris.:_

At the words, her eyes widened, then she dodged one of the creatures coming up from behind her—likely the one from earlier. Aeris was across the battlefield, with the rear pincers, so she swam in that direction. It was slow going, and she had to fight at least five of the creatures on her way, though in that case, she mostly worked to dodge them instead. As she went, she caught sight of Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka lining up to unleash their strongest attacks, then paused as they unleashed them. The water itself shuddered, and over half of the new additions were taken down at once, leaving her staring in momentary amazement. She hadn't realized the three of them could unleash a power like that.

However, she also saw them effectively end up 'dead in the water' after it, energy depleted to the point where they could hardly move. She paused long enough to send Ramuh to them to guard the three until they could either fight again or be picked up by allies, then kept going. In all honesty, it was one of the hardest things she had been asked to do, but if Aeris needed her nearby for something, or if Kaillyr and Minerva did, then she had to prioritize that. Neither were in the habit of getting their 'followers' killed needlessly, so what Kaillyr needed from her must be important.

And she had never been more thankful for Ramuh than she was right then, as lightning Aeons were so much more effective than others in this case. Ramuh would be able to protect Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka, and anyone else nearby, too, while she was busy.

 **Notes:**

(1) For anyone who wants to know, Eden's ability to easily call multiple Summons is due to the mass-summoning which was Zirconaide's Limit Break while Eden had his shards on him, causing it to channel through him, way back at the end of Catalyst Array.


	84. 80-A New Path

A New Path

When Yuna and Aeris met in the middle of the battlefield, it was much to both of their surprise.

Though, they pretty much had no time to dwell on that, as both of them flared with light, first in localized bubble-bands of energy in their respective entity's colors, then in much wider-reaching bands. From Aeris, multitudes of green-white threads of energy spread through the water across the battlefield, and from Yuna spread threads of red-gold energy. The two energies intertwined and touched every living thing across the battlefield, healing allies and—creating bubbles of light around the creatures. All of the attackers were forced to stop where they were as the bubbles formed around them, bubbles which also stopped or deflected attacks on them which had been in progress, then the bubbles shrank.

Aeris and Yuna traded puzzled looks, then looked around at the shrinking bubbles of light near them, seeing how they were reduced in size to about a foot, the creatures apparently still inside them as their armor pieces fell off them and to the ocean floor. It was only when the bubbles of light finally cleared when they realized they were looking at almost humanoid-fish-like _babies_. At first, the two women could only stare in surprise, as could most of those on the battlefield, but Yuna and Aeris—suddenly feeling _tired_ as the energy flow stopped at last—swam down to two of the small beings which were near each other.

Both realized very quickly that, yes, they were looking at infants, probably nearly newborns. It was Aeris who realized it first, so she gathered the small bundle in her arms, then closed her eyes and asked Minerva, _:What do we do now, Minerva? With these babies?:_

 _:Return them to their people to raise properly,:_ Minerva replied, sounding very pleased. _:The facility is safe now, and they cannot be left here or they will be devoured.:_

Looking up once she had her answer, Aeris found that Yuna had gathered the one nearest her, and once she did, others also began gathering the ones nearest them. Making a 'follow' motion, Aeris held the baby in one arm and swam down towards the facility entrance, which they could all only see because lights had begun to shine from all over the ocean floor. It soon became apparent as she neared some of the ones near the door that many of the lights were 'windows' into the facility, but with the sand loosely scattered across most of them, seeing in wasn't really possible—the light just helped them all see the terrain better.

Again, when Yuna followed her, all the others followed Yuna, and they made pretty good time to the facility entrance, where they found themselves in a large, mostly metal space. While it was a good size, still only so many would be able to fit at once. They would likely have to go down in two groups (or more, if others besides the ones with the babies followed them)—the previous numbers which had emerged from there must have been _very_ tightly-packed to have managed.

She was puzzled about what to do next, so asked Minerva, and she replied, _:On the ceiling near the far side of the space is a panel which registers a presence near it, and which will activate the system. You must move within its space. And will likely need to do so for the rest of those seeking entrance, or tell another how to activate the system.:_

After thanking the entity, Aeris found the panel—it was the only part of the chamber which looked notably different from the rest of the surfaces, other than another, similar one near the exit. She waited until as many had gotten into the space as would fit, then moved under the panel, which did indeed activate the system to seal the other door and start draining the water. They were all surprised by the rotating walls, but thankful for the slow drainage out of the space so they were able to find their footing with the infants they now held.

As they were finding their footing, Zack and Koln both were nearly right beside her, so once enough water had drained for them to be able to talk properly, she told them, "So, these systems need to be activated by someone who isn't me." Both of them blinked at her in surprise, so she grinned and said, "Well, more like, I want someone else to let in the next group, and it's not like I can instruct _them_ , so one of you will have to do it."

"What about these—baby things?" Koln asked with a bit of a puzzled frown. Both men were carrying one, and while Koln clearly had no idea how to hold a baby, Zack did, and Aeris thought that was just _so cute_.

"Hand yours to Zack," she replied impishly.

"Why me?" Zack blinked in surprise.

"Because you actually know _how_ to hold one, and you're strong enough to easily carry two," Aeris informed the two men cheerfully. They traded looks, then Zack grinned and held out his arm to take the baby from Koln.

Once it had been handed off and Zack was comfortably holding both, Koln looked at Aeris and asked, "So, how does this system work?" The room was beginning to clear out by then, too.

"See those panels, one near this side and one near that side?" she asked, pointing up at the one above them. Both men looked up at it, then Koln looked at her and nodded, so she said, "The one over there has a wider range of activation, though I'm guessing it's set to not activate within a certain time of this one being activated. The one over there opens this chamber up to the water again, and this one clears the water to open it to the facility. Just get beneath them to make them trigger, but make sure no one's in the way of the doors."

"Okay," Koln agreed. "I can do that."

"Good! Thank you! Come on, Zack—we have to hand these three over to their people now," Aeris nearly chirped, grabbing one of Zack's elbows and leading him out of the chamber with the rest of the people in the first round. Soon after all of them had stepped out, the door shut behind them, and Aeris knew Koln was going to let in the next group just fine.

FoW

Yuna was one of the first to step out onto the walkway into the facility when all of them saw a large number of the creatures waiting for them. To her, however, a look at them had shown her they were both unarmored and unarmed, so she took the chance to step forward.

Across the walkway, one of the creatures stepped forward as well, both somewhat cautious, and met in the middle, where Yuna offered the infant carefully to the creature which had approached her. The creature took the infant, and soon after, those on both sides were approaching the middle to hand off the infants to their own people. Yuna had quickly moved to the rail to lean on it as she just watched the exchanges, and was soon joined by Aeris as the younger brown haired woman leaned tiredly against her side.

"I'm still a little confused by all this...I had no idea Minerva and Kaillyr could do something like this," Aeris commented, then covered her mouth with one hand as she yawned.

"That may have been why they needed us as physical outlets, though," Yuna replied in vague amusement. "I figured you'd realize it after what you told me about Sephiroth and Qliphoth, though?"

"Hmm...I guess I should have, barring the obvious difference in sheer numbers and the lack of planetary entity genetics these beings have," Aeris agreed after a fashion.

Yuna chuckled faintly at that. "I wish we knew what happened to the infiltration team. And I wonder if these beings have a name."

"I'm sure they do," Aeris replied in amusement. "And the team should be fine now that the battle's over."

"They may not have survived that long, though..." the older woman sighed.

"Are you talking about us?" Karru's voice asked from above them, making them both yelp in surprise and twist to look up at the fourteen-year-old as she giggled. When the two caught sight of her, they saw her dangling on her grappling cord from the piping above the walkway rail. She then turned towards the door leading deeper into the facility and yelled, "Okay, everyone, let's move this into the central hall, where there's more space!"

A somewhat annoyed, shriek-like sound came from that direction before a gravelly-voice called back, "We move into hall now!" The voice sounded distinctly annoyed, much more than the shriek from before.

As Yuna and Aeris watched in amazement, the crowd all automatically migrated in that direction, and Karru dropped down onto the rail, then rested her hands on Yuna's and Aeris' nearest shoulders to help her on her trip from the rail to the floor.

She then promptly hugged both women before grinning and dragging them along with the throng of people moving into the 'central hall'. Which turned out to be a massive, open space with a glass dome serving as the ceiling to let in a view of the ocean from below, and it was lined by what appeared to be stalls similar to merchant shops. There was even a second level of 'market stalls' built above the first, and it left the middle space open—where many large tables were being moved into place from a large storage room off to one side of the hall. Why there was a glass dome in a facility which would have been under layers of rock was a pretty major question, though.

At a table which was already situated, everyone could see Eden, Hana, Reeve, Shelke, and Libby sitting with three of the creatures and a human-shaped projection of a man none of them had seen before. Beside the projection of the man, Tusati in fayth form stood, the two of them talking quietly while they waited for everyone to find seats. When Eden saw Aeris and Yuna, he rose and beckoned them over.

"What's all this about, Eden? I take it you all were successful?" Yuna asked.

"Yes, fine. I'm tired, though, and I'm sure you are, too. But, Yuna, you're the 'leader' of Wilderia and Djose and the Spirans, so you'll need to talk with the 'leaders' of sorts of these people. And I need Rufus, since I know damned well he was on the battlefield, too," Eden replied.

"He was, but I haven't seen him since mid-battle," Yuna agreed tiredly.

Eden nodded and said, "Go sit down while I see if I can find him."

"You don't need to 'find' me, Eden," Rufus replied in a dry tone from a few feet to one side of them.

"You didn't take one of the infants, did you?" Yuna asked him in surprise.

"I did not—there were none left to take by the time I was done with my situation," Rufus agreed. "Though, with sharks moving onto the battlefield in mass numbers, and this entrance closer than the surface, we figured this was still our best bet."

"Fine, then go sit down with Reeve," Eden replied, flicking his hand back in the older man's direction.

"What about your battle in here?" Rufus asked, gaze intent. "It seems obvious you were in one..."

With a shrug, the blond answered with a shudder, "Their creepy system spat some of the soldiers out too soon and they were, like, dissolving when they reached us." Yuna, Aeris, and Rufus' eyes widened. "We were at the control room door, though, and we sort of knew those ones would all die in short order, anyway, because they hadn't been formed enough to be viable. It was disturbing, and I don't want to go into any further details. Thank God for vents and elevators, though..."

"And Reeve's part?" Rufus asked warily.

"Oh, that wasn't bad, since he and Shelke could Dive easily, and I sent Libby with them, just in case—she has a Mastered Shield Materia on her which she could use to protect them from the system's attempts to attack them from outside. What happened while they were in the system, I have no idea, but it obviously was successful or we wouldn't be standing here now," the Turk explained.

"And the projection?" Yuna asked curiously.

"Apparently, that's what the computer's AI looks like, and Tusati said he's not surprised, since the projection looks like its creator—the same scientist whose third lab they never found. Well, the lab's been found now, but it's also moot, so..." Eden told her. "Anyway, the system doesn't have a name for itself, and Tusati is strongly of the opinion that he shouldn't pick his creator's name—and apparently the system didn't want that, either—so for now, he's just going by Aism, which is an acronym for 'artificially intelligent system manager'."

"I see," Rufus sighed faintly. "Well, then...Shall we head over, Yuna?"

"We should," she agreed.

The two went as Eden, Aeris, and Karru found other places to sit. As Yuna and Rufus were approaching, Reeve noticed them and called, "Ah, Yuna, Rufus, good! You're just the ones we need to finish up. Come sit down."

"Eden told us," Yuna agreed, choosing the seat next to Reeve, and Rufus took the seat next to her, placing her in the middle with the two men flanking her. She noticed the projection raise a brow slightly, but went on, "So, introductions, and what do we need to do right now?"

"Establish peace and trade treaties, I hope," Reeve replied dryly. "But yes, introductions." His gaze moved to the projection as he asked, "Have you and Tusati worked out a better name which would suit you on a more permanent basis?"

"I believe Zoren (1) will be suitable, or simply System Manager. By your new terms, that would be my...title, I suppose, similar to one of your Mayors," the projection replied.

"That's suitable, and if you like it, that's the most important part," Reeve agreed with a smile. He then looked at Yuna and Rufus and said, "So, now that Zoren has his name chosen, that's him. We finally have a racial name—Oriba (2), or Oribas in plural, and Oriban for something originating from their race. Their representative with Zoren is Seath (3), and while they have gender after a fashion, it's rather...different from how we handle things, so you actually have to ask each one which pronoun they use. Many of them still just use 'they', or 'it', and Seath hasn't specified a pronoun, so—they're a 'they'. I'm still a little mind-boggled by that. Anyway..." Reeve then quickly introduced Zoren and Seath to Yuna and Rufus.

"So, who was the one calling everyone into here? Was that you, Seath?" Yuna asked curiously.

"Yes," Seath agreed. "Need more space. Need to prepare more space." The Oriba made a face and said, "Still processing language, not fluent yet. Forgive."

"It's fine," Yuna grinned. "The Ronso used to talk like that, and sometimes still miss some words, anyway. We ignore it unless we really don't grasp your meaning." When Seath nodded, she asked, "So, I assume you've got some start to the negotiations?"

"World not like was—strange. Races same, places different. Now with data, see differences," Seath replied. "Have goods, never traded. Made only needs." Their brow furrowed before they went on, "Money and gil never used. What those? Why trade for them? Useless metal."

Rufus looked highly amused as Yuna chuckled and said, "You're right, those never really made sense, did they? But a long, long time ago, someone decided to create this item everyone could use as a trade good, thereby giving it a value, and mostly, they did it so they could prove how much better they were than everyone else by amassing a large enough amount of it that they could get anything they wanted. Even this place was originally built with gil, even if that never mattered to you—your creator had to have it so he could get materials and labor to make everything here. New things you've added didn't count, but for him, he was a wealthy and powerful man who wanted to prove a point, to prove he was better than a rival."

"Money stupid," Seath stated bluntly. "No money here, live just fine."

"Yeah, as slaves..." someone commented from off to the side in a disgusted tone.

Zoren turned to face in that direction and stated, "Other than the soldiers, everyone else lived a normal life and built a society. While our original creator may have been trying to prove his value above another, this place was also a refuge for him, and he died here with us. The society the Oriba created was at his instruction. We work a fraction of the time your people do by the data Reeve provided and still produce at least as much as any of you. Everyone has much time to do as they wish, the soldiers having been an exception until now—they have been in stasis while not needed, though I am quite certain you have slain most, if not all, of those. These people have more freedom and far less stress to 'outperform' others than your people do, so do not call us 'slaves' when we are not and never have been."

As the speaker was about to say something, Yuna quickly said, "Rufus and I have been discussing what it would take to switch to a moneyless system without a hierarchy. It will take us time because we first have to undo the current system, but we've found the only real deterrent is exactly that desire people have to be 'better than' someone else. I suppose that's one of the failings of our race, collectively. For Rufus and myself, this would have to result in us leading by example, and making the transition over time. We're tired of pointless wars which kill untold numbers for no particular reason, so our current system _needs_ to change if we want to accomplish that. Perhaps the example of your society is exactly what we need, Seath, Zoren."

A long silence followed her words as she gazed evenly at the two across from her, knowing this was actually one of the major dividing points which needed resolution for them all to go forward peacefully. If it went in her and Rufus' favor, things would go much better overall, and she desperately wanted that—her discussions with Rufus had given her hope for a better future. Getting to it was the hard part, and had to begin with making changes in the immediate time, something Rufus had already begun by changing his governing system to one where everyone had all their needs taken care of decently in exchange for half of what would have been their income. It was a start, and she needed leverage to do that in Spira, not just Gaia. The plan wouldn't work if the whole world didn't move forward into it, but people needed to accept the changes, too.

Finally, Seath said, "We help, teach where can. In meantime, trade goods for other goods or information. Can make much goods quickly, need only little of what made. But, we never make so much we run out. Run out no good, then have nothing to trade. Easier when no money, no trade, then just make what need because needed. No waste, no loss."

"That's good to know. It sounds more efficient than our system," Rufus offered. "So, if we can all set those attacks of yours aside, since those were due to a misunderstanding, we can all move forward and see where our agreement now will take us. Hopefully, that will be to a better place than where we once were."

"As we said, now that we have real data on the current world, peace is no hardship," Zoren agreed. "That is a point in your favor to begin with, and it adds one more element to our society which I believe will benefit us. We have isolated ourselves for too long, though that was largely no fault of anyone's, and working with others will be a new experience for us all. You will have to explain such interactions to us. The only question will be how people would react if we went to the surface to visit—our protective gear, what you call armor, has given your people some negative references."

"I don't think you actually _need_ that protective gear, though, unless you're going into battle," Reeve put in then, making the others blink at him. "Well, the infants, which are designed just like any of your own children as far as I can tell, are just fine in the water, and your armor was more of a hindrance to you than a help on land. We may need to make some changes to our cities to give you watery routes so you can get places, but I think you would also want to work on something you could either wear or rub onto your skin to help keep it from drying out. I don't expect you would ever want to visit the deserts, though, since those are probably a little too hot and dry for your ability to handle. Your armor never protected you from those basic environmental issues."

"...You help?" Seath asked curiously.

"Of course we will!" both Yuna and Rufus said, which roused several chuckles.

"We plan, then...You not stay long now, have lives in homes. We do what can now, arrange other times to meet," Seath offered.

"That sounds good," Rufus agreed.

"Oh, but can I ask something which really doesn't make sense to me, first?" Yuna asked suddenly, making everyone look at her curiously. "I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who noticed it, either, but..." She pointed straight up at the ceiling and asked, "Why is there glass there when you were underground, not underwater, until less than a year ago?"

"There were caves which ran right up alongside this area," Zoren replied dryly. "They were full of water, and we had previously kept the light soft so it would not disturb the wildlife while letting the residents see some of the creatures. Now, with the space open to the water, the aquarium effect is actually greater, though we will need to begin clearing it of sand and debris every so often. There is nothing mysterious about it."

"I see," Yuna smiled. "In that case, we may want to arrange school field trips here for children to study the ocean wildlife and environment in safety."

"That is a shockingly good idea," Rufus agreed, smirking faintly.

"Hey! Rufus, do I have to remind you of what happened the first time you visited Macalania with me?" Yuna asked him in return with a faint smirk of her own.

"We agreed not to discuss that," he replied sharply.

"Pending results of your good behavior," she agreed sweetly.

Rufus sighed and pressed a few fingertips to his forehead, eyes closed in exasperation as he muttered, "Women..."

"What was that, Rufus?" the woman asked from beside him, looking very amused.

"I'm beginning to loath your time with Hikari and Eden," he told her in annoyance.

"Why, because I'm now a well-balanced human again?" she asked in pure amusement.

At the laughs that rouse, Rufus just sighed again and asked, "Shall we get on with our preliminary agreement so we can all get some rest?"

 **Notes:**

I'll let everyone guess what may have happened with Rufus and Yuna in Macalania. In this case, it's the region in general, which is primarily forest. The incident would have happened during the first six months before the trouble and Pilgrimage began.

(1) Zoren is literally a random name I pulled out of thin air because it seemed to suit. It may exist somewhere, though anywhere else it may exist has nothing to do with my choosing to give him that name.

(2) Oriba came from a merging of two words from two different languages, orita for octopus and riba for fish. There were several languages which used riba or a variant as their word for fish, but only Malagasy (assuming Google Translate is correct) uses orita as their word for octopus.

(3) Seath is a name I picked from an online baby name site after searching for unisex names (can be used by both genders, for those who don't know) with the meaning 'fish'. In other words, in the Oriba race, names aren't gender-specific! I just thought this would be cute as a name, anyway.


	85. 81-Full Circle

**A/N:** Welcome to the literal last chapter! **Please read the notes in bold at the end!**

Double post today so you can go right through to the Epilogue and see how things turned out.

Full Circle

When everyone returned to their launching point in New Midgar, the first thing they had to do was get a head count. The death toll was upsetting for everyone and had left gaps in the ranks of nearly every combat unit.

Of the Turks, they had lost seven of the ones who had joined them after the battle at Erva Eyja and Gaia Rock, as well as Cissnei, Ruluf, and Quis. In addition, Emma had lost her dominant hand nearly up to the shoulder, and Balto had lost his right eye to go with the scar he'd had on that cheek below his eye. Better his eye than his life, as he told Eden when the blond made his way to the hospital with Zack to see him. Their closest combat unit had been Godo's people, who were back to being called Crescent Unit, and they had lost comparable numbers with three injured in some permanent way. With prosthetic technology being what it was, most of those injuries wouldn't prevent them from working, it would just take time for them to get back up to par.

SOLDIER had suffered similar numbers of losses, percentage-wise, now that they knew how to fight the Orida soldiers, though very few had been injured in permanent ways. Of their losses, the only really notable one Eden had registered was Luxiere. How Cloud and Anthony had survived unharmed was beyond everyone, but most of them were thankful for small mercies at that point. Losses amongst the Terras' crews and the Spiran militaries was similar, though the latter had a higher toll than the crews did. Karru had to mourn several of the crew and jet fighters of the Aeroterra, but when she asked to stay with Hana at least until they had all revisited the Den of Woe, Sanni let her stay with the group—she had proven her strength beyond doubt.

With the losses, they easily spent a month largely in mourning, and it was only after that when Hana, whose Guardians had all stayed in New Midgar with her, asked them all if they would join her to return to the Den of Woe. Since Eden, Koln, and Karru had all come to terms with events there, they agreed, and Sora and Gamahri were willing. Aeris, being who she was, cheerfully announced that Aria and Zack were going to join them, at least up to the entrance. With the rest of the Guardians' and Summoner's agreement, the group plus two set out for the Den of Woe.

FoW

They were back in Mushroom Rock Road, on the path to the Den, when Hana suddenly stopped, forcing herself to breathe deeply with her eyes closed. A hand on her shoulder made her look up at Zack, who told her, "Take your time. You're not alone."

She blinked, then blinked again, and smiled faintly as she said, "Aeris is a very lucky woman to have you as a boyfriend."

He gave her a grin as Aeris giggled from his other side, and replied, "Thanks, but that's not actually important or relevant right now."

After a pause to think about the point—really, all she was doing was trying to distract herself—she asked, "Why did you say 'take your time'? Monsters gain strength at night, and we already don't have long to get back to Djose Temple before then."

"Hana..." Zack began dryly, then motioned at the others gathered around her. "We're a bunch of powerhouses. Seriously, there isn't a monster around we can't beat, night or otherwise, single-handedly. We don't need to worry about that. So, take your time."

With a slow nod, she thought about proceeding to the Den, but as her gaze moved forward to the path, seeing the slices the Oridas had left behind, she froze up again. She wasn't used to being so afraid of anything, and there was no real reason for it to still be affecting her so much.

At least, that was what she kept trying to tell herself. The reality was harsher and colder to her—she had nearly died, she had watched her friends turn on one another, she'd seen death caused through no fault of anyone's other than one single fiend. One fiend which was Sin-level powerful, had somehow not been found for who knew how long, and which had somehow made the cave itself its body. Feeling the oppression on her mind as it clawed and scratched at her mental shield with its mind, knowing she had to forcibly stay calm and just hope leaving everyone she cared about was the right course of action...

For her, the experience wasn't a blank, it was a painful reality. While it hadn't been all bad, she had been left wounded nonetheless.

The fiend was no longer there, though, and the Den was merely a cave like any other. It had to be for Eden, Koln, Karru, and Aeris to have returned from there safely.

Taking a deep breath, she forced one foot in front of the other, walking slowly as she moved with those forced-but-determined strides. Like Eden had said more than once, one of the versions of 'strength' was the kind which forced past fear to reach familiarity and comfort. This was one of those times. And gradually, as she forced herself to move, her strides became less forced and more natural, letting her reach the entrance to the Den not too long after. While Zack and Aria stopped at the entrance, the rest of her Guardians entered the cave with her, letting her choose the speed and their path once inside.

At first, Hana could only manage to take the paths she hadn't the previous time, but finally, she was left only that one last route, so she forced herself to take it. Up to that point, the rest of the Den had seemed fine, and all of her Guardians were behaving normally. If that hadn't been the case, she was fairly certain she'd never have been able to take the last path. When she reached the room where Aeris had grown all the trees and plants, where everyone had fought before, she also completely forgot about everything else, as did the rest of the party.

Unlike last time anyone had seen it, the room was still growing strongly, and floating around the trees were Gaian pyreflies—and some red-gold lights which no one had ever seen before. The two types of energy lights were dancing around apparently happily, almost filling the chamber full and even floating down into the water, dancing down the path to the final chamber, where the fiend's core had been. The room was filled with light so bright it was nearly like being outdoors during midday on a bright, sunny day. She had honestly never seen so many pyreflies (or whatever the other ones were) in one place before that they created such an effect.

Spiran pyreflies had always been formless energy which was attracted to strong emotion, especially of the negative sort, or to a very strong desire to live. These lights were more like a Spiran variant of Gaian pyreflies, and seemed to behave in exactly the same way as the Gaian ones.

 _:Kaillyr, what's going on in the Den of Woe?:_ she asked him, really wanting answers to this puzzle.

 _:This is a place where those who wish to become unsent, or to release themselves from that state, may do so,:_ Kaillyr replied to her with a sense of a smile. _:There is a purpose for this. It is a choice, and not to be taken lightly. Becoming unsent is also an act of death, and releasing oneself from it releases the individual into death, not once more into life, regardless of age.:_

 _:Why do something so risky? Very bad people could use it, too, then!:_ she replied, apprehensive as she saw the one major flaw in giving people a place to guarantee a state of becoming unsent.

 _:Even as things stand now, a very negative person could become unsent, and that is an issue of discovering the fact and dealing with it as you have always done. It is no different from now, and could never have been completely prevented, regardless. It is intended to be used by those who wish to guide and protect the world upon a new path, and is only intended to be told to those who would use it for the correct reasons. Those who are already unsent may release themselves should they grow weary of their time in this world. As to the other, I trust you and yours shall only inform those who would act as watchdogs, such as Reeve, Tseng, Rufus, or even Eden. Or Aeris and yourself, should you so wish. You need not make the decision now.:_

Hana was honestly mind-boggled by the revelation, but two things stood out to her, one about the list she had been given and one about the location. She asked slowly, _:Why did you only list Gaians, and what about all the fiends who have been in the Den of Woe—what will happen to this place if another fiend like the one I Sent houses itself here?:_

 _:This will prevent the eventuality of another fiend, of any sort, housing itself here,:_ Kaillyr assured her first. The words caused her to breathe out a deep sigh of relief before he went on, _:As to why I listed Gaians...For native Spirans, becoming unsent has always been a possibility and something you have accepted. Gaians, on the other hand, have never before had the opportunity, and will need time to adapt to it, hopefully before the truly good ones begin dying. A word to a Spiran who has such an intent to assist things in progressing forward and they will readily accept this potential, while a similar word to a Gaian would produce something near revulsion on instinct.:_

For a moment, Hana closed her eyes and let her senses settle. It seemed her emotions had finally come to terms with the place being safe, and she was glad they had decided to calm. Then, she thought to ask, _:What do we call the new energy you're producing?:_

 _:The new energy you see here should apply only to this place. Leave it unnamed,:_ the entity replied, seeming bemused by the question.

Opening her eyes in mild surprise, Hana then slowly turned to look around at the others—and realized abruptly that someone was missing. "Where's Eden?"

The others all turned to look away from the lights and around the chamber, noticing as she had the blond Turk's absence. Shaking her head as she recalled Kaillyr's words about the reaction Gaians would have to voluntarily becoming unsent, Hana headed back up the path to the chamber above. She found the young man there as he apparently smoothed the floor with his 'alchemy', one gouge at a time. The others followed her, just watching silently, not really knowing what was going on.

"What are you doing, Eden? Why did you stay here alone?" she asked him, brow furrowed in confusion.

"There was too much energy ahead. Apparently, it doesn't agree with me," he replied in a vaguely amused tone as he worked. "It's a lot like being hit by a lightning bolt. Repeatedly. It was unpleasant, so I stopped and came back here to wait for you. Sorry about that—I wasn't expecting it."

"You...couldn't handle the energy down there?" she asked in surprise. "It was Gaian pyreflies and a variant of Spira's enegy which was similar in form—it shouldn't have affected you at all, especially if you have no desire to become unsent."

His gaze lifted to her for a long moment before he said, "If it's intended to effectively cheat death, that's probably why I couldn't handle it. I had to work hard to overcome the thought that I should be able to bring back the dead. This place is directly contradicting that premise, and I'm tired of being given opposing views on life and death. People aren't supposed to live forever or come back from the dead, and the unsent are both."

"You don't seem to mind Yuna and her Guardians," Hana pointed out.

"They already are, and they don't give off the energy of that room," he shrugged, going back to his work on the floor.

"You'd rather die if you had the chance to live?" she blinked.

Sighing, Eden answered, "Maybe later in my life I'll feel differently, but for now, I've basically done what I set out to do, so there's no pressing reason for me to stay around. In some ways, that actually disturbs me—having nothing to do, no real purpose, for very long spans of time doesn't sit well with me."

At that moment, Hana realized what Kaillyr had meant about the Gaian reaction to becoming unsent—even the creation of a fayth had been hard enough for them, but the unsent were different from them as well. Fayth just wanted to _live_ , but unsent had a _reason_ —a regret, normally, or a promise—which kept them. Only those who so absolutely believed in a goal, such as becoming a permanent and enduring watchdog unit, would be able to handle it. She had believed for a long time that what actually kept Yuna, Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka in the world was a strong desire to be those watchdogs, regardless of what had initially triggered it, and they had admittedly helped a lot over time. If the group of watchdogs could become larger, all unsent, and guided directly by Minerva and Kaillyr...

Just maybe the world had a good chance to stay on the right path once they were there.

"All right. You don't have to decide now. This is a permanent fixture here, so if you change your mind when you're old and gray, you'll still be able to make use of it," she informed him, making him look up in mild surprise. "And for the record, Kaillyr said we should only tell people who either already are unsent—this will also release them from that state—and people who can properly watchdog the world for extended times."

Eden blinked and asked in amazement, "It has a kill-switch?"

His fellow Summoner looked highly amused by the words, but agreed, "It does." When Eden relaxed and managed a faint smile, she said, "Let's go back now. We have a message to pass on to certain people."

Rising, the blond agreed, "Let's go, then. Looks like you've accomplished what you meant to in coming here, too, so we're all good now."

With smiles, the group headed out, retrieving Aria and Zack at the entrance—and taking a detour to explore the underwater ruins at the Moonflow.

"You know, maybe this would be a good city for the Oridas to move into?" Aria suddenly commented when they returned to the shore.

Everyone turned to stare at her in amazement for a moment, making her blush furiously, before Eden called in the idea to Tseng.

FoW

As the world adapted to all the changes, four years passed before Aeris and Zack decided to get married. Things were going well, the Oridas were quite happily established in the former Moonflow ruins, which was now being called Moonflow City, and generally, people had gotten happier.

But that day was different from all the others in the last—now nearly five—years, and Eden and Tseng were practically nervous wrecks (though Tseng would never admit to it) as Zack hauled them into the room where, a few minutes ago, Aeris had been screaming in pain. He quickly scanned the room—and found the woman sitting peaceably in the bed with a small baby in her arms. She looked up at them tiredly and smiled, but she didn't move, so Zack pulled both men to the bed-side and pushed Eden into the seat there.

 _That_ was when Aeris moved, leaning over to push the bundle of blanket and baby into Eden's arms. He froze, and Aeris chuckled as she said, "Now, bend your arms just like this, and hold her close to you. See, it's not that hard, is it?" She helped him settle, then looked up at him and said, "You and Tseng are her uncles, so you need to meet Jenny. Tseng, you get to hold her after she's had a bit of time to bond to Eden."

Eden just stared down at the little girl he held in something like shock and awe. She was—tiny! Had he really once been so small? And completely helpless?

"That's fine," Tseng agreed with a wry smile. "How long do you think that will take?"

"Probably not too long, as long as you both keep visiting her regularly," Zack replied cheerfully. "Did you hear about the airship the Refuge commissioned?"

'The Refuge' was the name given to the new watchdog unit Reeve and Yuna had forged not long after the man had agreed to become unsent—that had been about a year before. With them, Felicia (who was apparently immortal, anyway, thanks to being merged with Zirconaide) and Vant headed the unit, and it was the two combat personnel who handled most of the work at the moment. Gaia's Refuge had been the base for it, and most of their people worked in it, though not as unsent. To date, the only Gaian who had taken the offer had been Reeve, and that was because he had a vested interest in seeing a different world, a fully peaceful one, and helping to maintain that.

"I did. It was apparently intended to be modeled after the Terras," Tseng replied. "Though, I don't know much more about it, beyond it being capable of combat. They haven't told me any details yet, but I have a suspicion they don't want it to _look_ combat-capable."

"Why not?" Aeris asked in confusion, her hand resting on Jenny's forehead.

"So people don't feel threatened if they happen to turn up with their fastest mode of transportation—their personal airship," Eden replied to her in a dryly amused tone, still focused on Jenny.

"Oh," Aeris blinked, then grinned. "I guess that makes sense. Now, Jenny, meet your Uncle Eden," she coaxed the baby gently, and her little eyes opened to show very deep blue. "They may stay blue, or they may turn green. Do you realize Zack and I had a baby strangely early after getting married when SOLDIERs are supposedly the next thing to impotent?"

"Did you want a baby?" Eden blinked.

"Of course," she smiled. "I just thought it would take longer."

"Maybe it has something to do with all that energy Zack has," the blond Turk chuckled, and Jenny managed a small smile and happy gurgle. "I mean, he has so much of it that every part of him must have it, too, right?"

"Hey!" Zack stared, but Aeris began giggling.

"We don't know the color of her hair yet, but it's probably going to be dark," the woman said with a grin. "It should start growing in—not this peach fuzz—in a week or so. I hope Jenny will be happy with us."

"Aeris..." Eden began, his gaze wryly amused. She blinked at him, so he told her, "You and Zack are probably the best parents around, and I'm sure any kids you have will be very happy with you. That's not something you need to worry about. Just be yourselves, like you always are. Apparently, babies aren't hard to please."

Aeris blinked at him, then looked at Zack in something like amazement (but he just grinned like a loon), then returned her gaze to Eden again. "Thank you, Eden. You're right—she'll be happy with us." She gave him a wide smile as she lifted her hand off the baby's head and faced Tseng. "Sorry to make you wait—by all rights, you should have held her first, as my older brother."

"Don't worry about it," he told her. "It's probably better if I hold her after Eden, since I'm probably going to want to hold her longer."

She stuck her tongue out at him playfully as Zack whined, "But I want to hold Jenny again..."

"No, Zack. You'll get to hold her plenty later. A lot, later. Because you're going to be going to get her for me every single time she cries for food. Or for anything, really," Aeris told him, her gaze twinkling. "No matter what time of the day or night it is."

"Awesome!" Zack grinned. "I get to pull all-nighters and hold my Little Flower as much as I want!"

Tseng, who had been peering over Eden's shoulder at Jenny just then, snorted as Aeris replied, "Of course."

"You two are insane..." Eden answered dryly, but even he was chuckling.

"It can't be worse than Seath trying to court that Hypello ferrier at the South Bank Crossing," Tseng replied in a dry tone. " _That's_ 'insane'."

"Weird as Hell, more like it. And she hasn't put out a restraining order on them yet?" Eden replied with a snort.

"I don't think she's entirely opposed to it, but is mostly very confused," the older Turk replied. "And he's not actually being obsessive or anything. Making Moonflow City what it is just had some unexpected side effects we now have to deal with, too. And they've been helping us a lot in other ways, otherwise Rufus and Yuna's plans for the continents wouldn't be going so well, or so quickly."

"But that's all a bunch of good things," Aeris smiled. "I think we need to take a break with the changes for a bit, though, give people a breather and time to adapt. Maybe five years to let things stabilize, then move them forward more?"

"I'll suggest it to him," Tseng replied—everyone there knew he meant Rufus, who would then share it with Yuna as well.

Tseng and Eden stayed for a few hours before handing Jenny to Zack and leaving.

"Welcome home, Jenova," Zack told her softly as he sat beside Aeris on the bed and gently ran his large hand over Jenny's small head. "We'll make sure you'll have another chance, because, after all, this is _your_ home, too."

"That's right," Aeris agreed, and Jenny gave another little, happy gurgle.

FoW

Mostly, from the time the Gaians had arrived on Spira to the point when Jenny was born, everything had been business as usual. Around the time she was born, things began to change, especially with the functions of the Turks, where they began dismantling criminal rings, investigating ordinary crimes, and stopping crimes in progress. They and SOLDIER were becoming a different sort of policing group. Yes, Rufus still wanted them to investigate and deal with issues within the new government of their fledgling country, but often the method of handling issues wasn't with deadly force, and more and more often, the Turks were actively investigating crimes as mundane as shoplifting or claims of domestic abuse.

While some of the Turks needed time to adapt to that, many of them had already been doing similar enough work to that for it to not make much difference. The major point in favor of them doing it was because they were doing it to protect people, not murder them because 'Shinra didn't like them'. Thankfully, they had a rather refined prison system on Spira which the Gaians could borrow, and the only real major issue was in working things out to more effectively provide appropriate needs to criminals without either being cruel or offering too many allowances—prison was intended to be a punishment, after all.

Reeve suggested to both Rufus and Yuna that they make sure their entire population had a certain minimum amount of food and nutrients, as well as housing—and those minimums would be the operating requirements of the prison system as well. On the premise that all civilians would have access to that, it wasn't unreasonable to provide it for the criminals, either. Other things, like access to reading materials, an information network, or any other similar things, were severely limited and monitored by prison staff, and some types of things were never allowed in the prisons. Contraband was a major issue which Turks were often dispatched to deal with, much to their annoyance and Rufus' amusement.

Ten years after Jenny was born, the world actively became aware of The Refuge, when Rufus' and Yuna's next round of changes would have released the Turks (or Yuna's version of them) from service. Rather than simply toss them out into the cold after everything they had done, The Refuge with Felicia and Shears at the helm, turned up to publicly claim the investigators they knew they would need, saving them from a complete collapse. Most people didn't have very negative opinions of the Turks themselves, but most certainly had misgivings about their 'leaders' keeping command of them, as that could too easily result in work in the shadows to produce certain outcomes. For their part, though, having to release their investigators from service was very painful for both Yuna and Rufus, even though both knew they'd have to in order to move forward.

With The Refuge being known as Felicia's group, the investigators could keep their bonds and their jobs without any fear of being tied to governing or government workings. No one had expected it—even Yuna and Reeve, who were still known only as their own 'governing leaders' had been surprised by their appearance to retrieve the people who had just been 'tossed out'. Rufus, also, had never before looked so relieved, because he'd known (more than Yuna, even though she had also known) they would be badly hurt by what he was about to do, and he hadn't wanted to do it. Felicia's intervention was literally the world's saving grace at that moment.

And with The Refuge's now known status, changes could proceed forward into a system which would gradually remove money over the next five years.

For the first time, both the Spirans and Gaians would be able to try for peace, and no one would lose out by the changes being made to accommodate that.

END

So, this is the official end of Fates of Worlds! Enjoy the Epilogue, and thanks for sticking with me right to the end, everyone (especially if you're stopping here)! :D

 **By the way...did ANYONE (besides Reishin Amara) ever actually wonder why this story line took two paths (well, three now), now that you know the plan for this path? There IS a pre-planned duality (um, triality now?) here, from the time I started writing it.**

 **And feel free to move on to reading Fates of Worlds – Dimensions or Salvation's Hands if you aren't already!**

 **FoWD picks up from Chapter 33 (35 by FFN numbering) of FoW, or 'roughly' from Chapter 68 (73 by FFN numbering) of SH, for anyone who is switching over, so it might be a good idea to remind yourselves of the last thing Ed would know at that point.**


	86. Epilogue-1000 Years Later

**A/N:** After reading, **let me know if I missed something**!

Also, I DO think Felicia/Zirconaide would produce much the same result as what happened to Vincent, but because she's not a corpse, she can still feel and react to things like a normal human, while he can't.

This epilogue is shorter than in Salvation's Hands because I had a lot less I needed to cover here, as some of it was covered in previous chapters, and the setting means some things wouldn't be discussed. If anyone has questions (for example, if they didn't read SH to know that epilogue), feel free to ask for clarification. Or read the SH epilogue.

Epilogue (1000 Years Later)

Tifa stretched leisurely as she finished up with the last clean-up needed at her eating house in New Midgar. Well, strictly speaking, it wasn't 'hers', but she'd been operating it for a thousand years, so as far as everyone thought of things, it was _hers_. Arriving on Spira had been one of the strangest things to have ever happened to her in her life, but she would never regret it, not with the life she had now, not with the friends and family she had, the purpose she had. Being unsent had taken getting used to, but she'd made the choice to become such around age thirty, after having had two children.

And she had a definite reason for becoming unsent.

She heard the back door open as Aeris' familiar voice called cheerfully, "How are you doing, Tifa?" With the eating house closed for the night, her time was free time, and she visited with her old friends then. Or, more appropriately, they visited with her.

"I'm fine. Come sit down and I'll get you a sample of my new wine cooler flavor!" Tifa called back. There was always one table she didn't prep for night because she frequently sat there with visitors, friends.

"Get us three!" Aeris replied with a cheerful chirp sound in her voice.

"Three?" Tifa asked as she moved over to get the requested drinks. In alcohol content, they were fairly mild, though she still wouldn't let anyone under fourteen sample them—even lightweights couldn't get drunk off her coolers. No one under eighteen got the hard liquors, though.

A minute later, the Cetra came through from the back, followed by Cloud and Genesis, and Aeris said, "It's not just a social visit today." All three looked around the same age as she did, though Genesis was obviously older by around five or ten years.

"That's a shame," Tifa replied teasingly, moving over to the table as the other three sat around it and she joined them with the drinks. "So, what's the situation to have brought the two of you gentlemen?"

"The Refuge knows something's not quite right," Genesis replied. "And Minerva and Kaillyr are forcibly letting us know something isn't right. We're trying to pinpoint it."

"The Lifestream Mills aren't working right, either—something's interfering with the flow," Cloud added. The Mills had been being used as their main source of power for the last five hundred years, and they pretty much couldn't do without that safe, clean energy source.

"Jenny also told us the only way to maintain the Mills at regular output right now is if she stays aligned with them, but she can only do that with one at any one time," Aeris added. "So we're really not sure what's going on. She shouldn't need to do that, and it's pointless for her to do it with just one."

"You mean the light flickers we've had the last couple days are because of the Mills not working right?" Tifa asked in surprise. At the others' nods, she said, "So you want to know what rumors I've heard during work, or what's been passed on to me by co-workers?"

"That's what we need now," Cloud agreed.

For a few long minutes, the woman sat quietly, gaze absent and distant as she replayed memories through her mind going back some time for anything which may have some bearing. It was her job—her actual job—as an operative of The Refuge, and the reason she'd become unsent. Being The Refuge's eyes and ears had gone a long way towards keeping peace and finding out about problems before they got out of hand, and it wasn't just people-related problems, like fights. More than once, they had also saved people from natural disasters, sudden monster attacks, or other similar issues. Or, more appropriately, that was the majority of their work, and had been since their second century of operation.

Finally, she looked up and said, "The only things which come to mind are one of the residents saying they got a sudden chill near our local Mill, and a traveler commented about a cave not far from the Moonflow. I didn't catch the whole discussion, but it sounded like a lot of people, monsters, and animals were dying out there. The area's also close to Guadosalam's Mill, so I wonder if there's some sort of link there. Someone in Guadosalam or Moonflow City might know, the Oridas especially, since it's so close to them."

"Guadosalam's Mill?" Genesis muttered with a small frown.

"If something's killing things, it might be a fiend, but if that's somehow tied to the Mills behaving like they are, that's a question," Aeris murmured. "I've never heard of a fiend manipulating the Mills, but I guess it could happen if it was a strong enough fiend."

"Like a Sacred Beast or Sin-level fiend," Cloud sighed faintly. "That means we first need our investigators to check into that.

"Also, to check and see if any of the other residents near Mills are feeling some sort of chill," Genesis added. "Jenny didn't, but she wasn't there long—it's not like she's a child who goes to play around them because they're like a carnival ride to them. And I really wish Minerva and Kaillyr would stop playing with the children that way, especially if something dangerous may be nearby."

"That's unfair to Minerva and Kaillyr, though," Aeris replied in amusement. "Especially when something has only ever been wrong near them twice now, and one of those was resolved in less than two days. They're pretty much one hundred percent safe, with only a fraction of a percent where they may not be. We should maybe have some of The Refuge's people warn civilians away from the Mills until this is resolved, though, then let things go back to normal."

"We can do that," Cloud agreed. "So, now that we've got work out of the way, how goes the regular daily events, Tifa?"

"Oh, that's right!" Tifa suddenly grinned in excitement. "Trisha and Ifalna will be showing off alchemy displays in the science fair in a couple days—Trisha really takes after Eden, and it's a shame he's not around to see her do it! She's practically a female version of him. I'm also sure she's going to start getting into trouble because of it, though. And Ifalna—seriously, Aeris, you _need_ to spend more time with her."

Aeris and Genesis traded bemused looks, then the man offered, "Since we're here, maybe we should meet with them? I mean, even if _Eden's_ not here, _I am_ , and I can see what's going on with Trisha just as well."

"That will probably keep her from slipping past any guards you post and going to the Mill anyway," Tifa agreed in amusement, and Genesis snorted as Aeris giggled. Even Cloud looked amused.

"Yup, sounds like Eden all right," Genesis agreed. "What about Kadaj and his cousins? Sephiroth asked me to watch over his descendants before he passed on, so I should at least _try_ to keep up to date with them."

"Kadaj's treatment was successful and he's gotten much stronger in the last year. He's always going to be on the small side, but he's got some fantastic power in him now that he's done with the physio," Tifa explained, smiling. "He even gives Trisha a run for her money in martial arts. Yazoo and Loz are still fine, and still protective of Kadaj. I think Loz might ask to train with the mercs when he turns fourteen so he can join them at eighteen. Yazoo—who knows with him? Though, lately, he seems to be delving into things like acting and dance, scriptwriting and choreography—I've never seen him so focused before." 'Merc', or 'mercs' in plural, had become the default name for the various towns and cities' defense force against monster or fiend attacks. They frequently traveled so they had to work in a new environment and wouldn't become too complacent.

"Does he know he'll have to become a teacher of those things if he goes that route, otherwise it's just a 'hobby'?" Aeris asked curiously.

"He was told that a couple days after he started studying it," Tifa agreed. "It was even our resident Motos who told him, so he knows he has to take it seriously. By the way, how is Yuna doing after Wakka chose to move on and—well, pass on?"

"Hana is staying with her for now," Aeris sighed faintly. "We had all gotten used to him, but—I'm not actually surprised a forty-five-hundred-year-old would finally just...choose to pass on. That Yuna, Tidus, and Rikku are still around says a whole lot about their fortitude, though I think them staying has a lot to do with Hana and Karru staying."

"Speaking of, how are Shelke and Karru doing? Keeping busy?" the other woman asked curiously.

Cloud had to snort at that. "Those two are a prankster nightmare as much as they are bloody useful for catching plans to cause harm to others."

"That's certainly true," Genesis agreed with a chuckle. When he saw Tifa's questioning gaze, he explained to her, "If they don't have anything in particular to track for The Refuge, they amuse themselves by pulling very clever, and very annoying, pranks on the rest of us. In short, boredom turns them to pranking. If they didn't have such a keen sense between the two of them of when a prank goes too far, we'd probably have killed them by now. Actually, without Felicia's intervention, we'd have killed them by now, anyway."

"What happens if Reno and Zack team up with them?" Tifa asked, looking honestly horrified, and thankful she pretty much never went to The Refuge's headquarters.

The other three traded looks, then sighed as Cloud replied morosely, "Then, Zack and the girls keep the prank from 'going too far', but the entire bloody headquarters suffers from it. Repeatedly. I swear, if Reno wasn't such a damned good combat tactician and strategist, he would _also_ already be dead."

"But no one wants to kill Zack?" Tifa had to ask in bemusement.

"Oh, he mostly leaves well enough alone when left to his own devices," Aeris replied dryly. "Unlike Shelke, who has become just as much a prankster as Karru and Reno since she and Karru got together, he mostly just lazes around doing nothing of his own accord. For which everyone is very thankful. That's why we mostly keep Zack and Reno apart, and the boys apart from the girls. Unfortunately, we can't separate Shelke and Karru, and trying doesn't go well."

"I feel for you, I really do," Tifa replied with very heart-felt sympathy.

"Apparently, you have enough to deal with regarding the mere eight and nine-year-olds you have here," Aeris said in amusement. "So don't offer too much sympathy for us _yet_. You may need it here. Soon."

"I hope not..." Tifa replied a bit sickly. "Though Ifalna having definite tentacle creation you said came from Jenova's genetics, maybe I should prepare anyway, because she and Trisha have very definite chances of creating chaos."

Genesis raised a brow and asked, "You think Sephiroth's and Qliphoth's brood don't?"

Tifa just stared at him in horror for a minute before saying, "Just—go get started on your investigation!" With laughs, the other three rose to head out.

Sighing as she cleaned up the last table, Tifa then smiled and thanked fate, Minerva, and Kaillyr for the mostly peaceful, stress-free world they had, where everyone lived happily and no one wanted for anything. It was something they all wanted to preserve, and which they all worked hard to keep that way. Seeing how well things had turned out made all the past loss worth it, but having so many unsent around who knew what the problems were and could catch and stop them before they became problems sure helped. A lot.

And she would keep working to help them so they wouldn't make the same foolish mistakes they had in the past.

Their world and their children were worth the effort.

AND THAT'S ALL SHE WROTE!

First, assume most of the people I didn't mention by name have since passed on, whether or not they ever became unsent. That means Rufus never became unsent, and while Eden may have for a short time, I don't see him as the type to stay that way for longer than maybe fifty years. Chaos, of course, is still around, along with Felicia and Shears, Reeve was noted last chapter, and a few other random Turks and SOLDIERs. I haven't decided if Yufi would have bothered, though I think she'd have been more like Eden and done it for a bit, but not with the intent to stay that way indefinitely. Some people, I was too undecided about to actually choose to make them unsent—of the Turks, the only one I could see whole-heartedly going with it is Reno, oddly enough. Even Tseng was too much of a variable in persona and perspective for me to allocate him to this category. It leaves playing room though, so...Who knows.

Second, I'm never going to clarify who got together with who to produce the noted kids, other than a few obvious points:

Trisha and Ifalna were stated. Ifalna specifically is not just one of Aeris' and Zack's descendants; in my mind, she's actually one of Jenny's as well—rather than one of Jenny's siblings' descendants, as she had 2 in my head-cannon, them being the 2 Zack and Aeris would have produced without Minerva's request specifically about Jenny. Well, assuming both Aeris and Zack had survived long enough to have kids. But, with Zack's SOLDIER infusions, there was no way they could have had more, and even him having been able to produce 2 (3 with help) was impressive.

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were stated. My thought is Kadaj is most directly Sephiroth's, and he's the oldest of the three, despite being rather small and delicate (obviously due to his being born sickly). Yazoo and Loz are both younger than him, and are fraternal twins who are most directly related to Qliphoth. Over the last 1000 years, they're all genetically descended from both Sephiroth and Qliphoth, though.

Obviously, because they're still in New Midgar, most of the townspeople are descended from various Turks and SOLDIERs. Mixed into those genetics are genetics for people like Shalua and Shelke, Anthony, Cloud, Tifa, and many others. There's also the definite possibility of many of these kids being mixes of Gaians and Spirans from back a thousand years ago, or since then as people traveled, moved, and met.

Again, **if anyone wants clarification on this 'system of government', either read the Epilogue of Salvation's Hands, or ask me!**

End of notes

Questions, comments, suggestions, offers, whatever, feel free to send them to me, but I make no promises on adding any more to this already massive story line. I'd have to get a whole lot of requests to create a story line based around this Epilogue, fill in blanks, or anything else.

If anyone decides to write a fic of this or some sort of spin-off, please let me know so I can read it, too!

I hope to see some of you reading Fates of Worlds – Dimensions or Salvation's Hands if you aren't already now that this is done!

Okay, completely done now!


	87. Notice

Some ideas have been running around in my head for awhile (I blame Reishin Amara entirely!), so...I'd like my readers' thoughts on whether or not I should expand on the Catalyst Array series further (or write something else instead), and **what everyone would be most interested in seeing**. To that end, I've **put up a poll** , which will be **open for several weeks**. **Be aware that I likely won't be posting any other stories until FoWD is done**. Your selections here will be helping me decide where to focus my attention when my muse for FoWD dies. We're on the second of what will probably be 3 polls now.


	88. New Poll

First, in a recap of the results of the last poll, be aware that I'm counting "I don't care which Ed and crew you use" votes (there were 2) towards both "Omega on another world" options, so final totals are the following:

(Edit: Late vote in a review for CA: +1 on both 1) and 4)...New totals-and yes, I'm leaving the numbering for the options as-is:)

1) The "Original" Ed and crew on another world (15 votes (12 + 2))

2) The "Dimensions" Ed and crew on another world (6 votes (4 + 2))

 **Both of these (1 and 2) are the first poll, and it's important!**

3) People from another world landing on the Catalyst Array Gaia (4 votes)

4) Something not related to Catalyst Array (5 votes)

5) People from another world landing on the Salvation's Hands Gaia (3 votes)

 **These three (3, 4, and 5) will be the second poll.**

If you're on mobile, switching your device to 'desktop mode' on FFN will let you see the poll on my profile page so you can vote!

 **The new poll, which will be open for several weeks** , will be for options related to either the **Catalyst Array (more accurately, the Fates of Worlds), or "Original", Omega or the "Dimensions" Omega landing on another world** (the two variants were at least poll-compatible) so I can get started seriously writing. I have no doubt there are many possibilities besides these, but these are the ones I feel I could turn into a viable story, hence why they're included and there's no option to make suggestions to me. **Please vote in this poll; the result DOES matter, and the more votes, the better idea I have of where to focus my story-building!**

A few extra notes if you want a bit more clarification on some things which will be in the poll options:

First, without quite realizing what I did with my options, I established **the "Dimensions" Omega which was to be used as being from a Gaia which lasted four years longer than the "Original" Omega's, and which isn't the one Ed's in for FoWD**. There are two instances of one particular world; that doesn't mean I have a preference for writing that world, it means I assessed that changing the arrival date, crew, and location of arrival will significantly change the resulting story. If you don't want either of those 'alike' options, don't choose them!

On the other hand, the poll after this one includes four instances of people from other worlds landing on a Gaia variant, and all but one of those also uses a world from in this poll (Harry Potter, Tales of the Abyss, and RWBY). What makes them different—and changes the story by extension—is how they're going to Gaia, rather than Gaia coming to them. Keep this tidbit in mind while voting, especially for voters who wanted others to arrive on Gaia!

 **NOTE:** The only other poll alerts in CA, SH, and FoW will be for the final week of this new poll and the announcement of the final one being opened (2 more alerts), with possibly 1 extra later on as a reminder if I need to take the last poll down. Permanent poll recaps on these two will only appear in FoWD as well. This poll's recap will otherwise only appear with the announcement of the final poll.


End file.
